


The Uzumaki Name

by Mishu



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, BAMF Women, Canon-Typical Violence, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 Have Issues (Naruto), Female Uzumaki Naruto, Feminist Kunoichi, Fuuinjutsu, Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Medical Inaccuracies, Multi, Other, Overpowered Uzumaki Naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:40:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 78,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23375536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mishu/pseuds/Mishu
Summary: Naruto discovered a name - her name, her name - in a book, and sparks a change in her attitude to life. She wouldn't be a cry-baby. She would kick ass like Uzumaki Mito and do her clan proud, starting with her poor chakra control - and ending... Well, where did all good kunoichi end?
Relationships: Gaara & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 176
Kudos: 1511





	1. What's in a Name?

What was in a name? It was a question the young girl asked herself every day. Her name, for instance, was Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, like the best part of the ramen (or was it the best because they shared a name?) that old-man Teuchi served her and charged her very little for… Y’know, despite the fact that she ate around seven bowls at a time, and anywhere up to twelve on a bad day. And she had a lot of bad days. Uzumaki, though – she didn’t have a cool name like the Uchiha or the Nara. Or even Hyuuga, like Hinata. U-zu-ma-ki. But she did have a cool name according to Iruka-sensei, who said today that she had a clan – a dead clan, a defunct clan, felled for being too powerful, but she had a name. A _name_. A bit like Hyuuga and Uchiha, except it was Uzumaki, and there was an Uzumaki Mito tied into Konoha’s history books, and she didn’t _really_ like the history books –

And yet here she was, in the library, nose buried deep in a history book as she craved _more_ about her clan name that she didn’t even think was real, or important. Uzumaki Mito was a beautiful woman, with fiery red hair and pale skin and pretty, cat-like eyes. Uzumaki Naruto did not have fiery red hair and pale skin and pretty, cat-like eyes, and her hair was cut short like a boys’ hair because that way she was less likely to be pressured into flower-arranging classes. Uzumaki Mito looked like she did flower-arranging classes, and that wasn’t a bad thing – she was pretty and strong, and – a _jinchuuriki_? Naruto paused at the word. What was one of those? She scanned through the index page of the book but found no other allusion to the word _jinchuuriki_. Some words were curiously blacked out with marker pen. There was an entire page that had been blacked out, but she could just about make out ‘kyuubi’. What did Uzumaki Mito have to do with the Nine-Tailed Fox demon? At eight years of age, she thought she was quite smart – not book smart like the Sakura girl in her class, but she was smart. She knew people. And Uzumaki Mito couldn’t possibly _be_ the Nine-Tailed Fox demon. So… maybe jinchuuriki meant… Maybe she held the fox. Like mothers held their babies? No. The picture of Uzumaki Mito didn’t have the _giant_ bump that mothers had from being swollen with child, so she couldn’t possibly contain a demon in her like mothers had babies.

But maybe it was like the ‘storage scrolls’ that Iruka-sensei wouldn’t let her look at any more...? He wouldn't let her look after the _incident_. She just thought the writing was really cool and neat, so she tried to make her writing cool and neat too. The problem was, and she’d told Jiji about this, she could make some pretty cool storage scrolls too. They weren’t like the one Iruka-sensei hid from her. Less writing, for one, and the Hokage had struggled to decipher what she’d done. But she had managed to store a blunted Academy kunai in one, _and_ get it back out again, which was a pretty big feat for a storage seal that nobody understood. So maybe they had sealed the demon into Uzumaki Mito like a storage scroll…

She looked up and over at the librarian at the counter. Nozomi-baachan was really nice to her, unlike the _other_ one, and thankfully Nozomi worked during the weekends which was really the only time she could visit the library. She put her book down and bounced over to the counter, grinning a big, foxy grin. “Nozomi-baachan!” she sang. “Do you have anything on the First Hokage’s wife?”

Nozomi looked over her glasses at her and gave her a small smile. “And why, Naruto-san, do you want information on her?”

“Because she’s a badass!” Naruto chirped, ignoring the sign that said ‘speak quietly’. Being quiet was overrated, and Nozomi-baachan didn’t mind. The _other_ one didn’t let her in anyway, so she was happy to spend time with just Nozomi, being loud and not told off for trying to get through the door. “And we’re doing somethin’ at the Academy about her, but Iruka-sensei moved over it real quickly and I think I might be related to her! Cos, cos, she’s called Uzumaki Mito, and _I’m_ Uzumaki Naruto, so… So I need to know.” She put on her best puppy-dog eyes.

Nozomi gazed down at the young girl, thoughts whirling around in her mind. She knew of the S-classed secret about the Kyuubi, having been fifteen when the fox attacked. She knew that Uzumaki Kushina must be the girls’ mother, though she wasn’t sure about her father. If she had to guess… Well, it was obvious from the golden hair and blue eyes that were uncommon in this region (discounting the Yamanaka).

Naruto-san had grown up to be an intelligent young girl, though overlooked by poor teaching at the Academy. Even as a civilian, she knew that Naruto had been stunted somewhat by lack of understanding of the content being delivered to her. However, she was corseted by how much she could help the girl, especially as her brother – a shinobi – had lost his pregnant wife in the aftermath of the attack. He didn’t blame the child, but he couldn’t cope and developed his own eccentricities that she found many ninja had. If Naruto-san put two and two together, or discovered Mito was a jinchuuriki too, she may uncover her own secret. And yet… Nozomi couldn’t help but still appreciate the child’s innocence in the face of so much hatred, and it was with a heavy heart that she smiled, stood, and took the child to a dusty tome that she and Keina-chan kept away from prying eyes.

“This book is very special, Naruto-san,” she said in a stern tone, the child’s hand warm in her own. “And I must beg you to be very, very careful when reading it. It was gifted to this library by one of the remaining – and only – members of the Uzumaki clan. This tells the story of a lost Hidden Village, headed by the Uzumaki clan, lost only recently. This village is Uzushiogakure no Sato, whom enjoyed close ties with Konoha and who you may be related to. I must stress to you, Naruto-san, that this village has been destroyed, and the likelihood… Of you having existing relatives – well… It may also be that you aren’t related at all, but were merely gifted this name as an orphan. However, the Uzumaki were a proud clan, and it’s unlikely you would be gifted this name.” 

Naruto digested all of this information with wide eyes, sucking her lower lip as she listened. Nozomi-baachan knew _so much_ , and had never told her any of this! She was fairly confident she was definitely an Uzumaki, because Mito-baachan sounded amazing and so she had to be amazing too. And Nozomi was holding her hand, which was really nice, and she was being so gentle with her too. “Okay, Nozomi-baachan,” she said solemnly, as solemn as a child could be. “I promise to be careful with the book!”

Nozomi stopped in front of a door marked ‘staff only’. She released Naruto’s hand for the keys and fumbled for a moment, before unlocking the door and ushering the girl in. The room had many scrolls and books, and it took her some time to uncover the book they library had been gifted by Uzumaki Kushina. When she finally found it, Naruto was bouncing around her, having regained some of the energy Nozomi’s speech had sapped from her. “Naruto-san,” she chided gently, gesturing to a plump seat by a windowsill. “Sit down. This is the book you need.”

And so began Naruto’s quest into what made a name.


	2. Chakra Control

It had taken her no time at all to plough through the book, and by the time Nozomi came around to make her leave, she had a small tower of books that she had read through. Her head hurt with all the information in the books, but there were a lot of really cool ninja things that she just _had_ to try. She was beginning the think her ease of recreating the storage scroll was a trait of being an Uzumaki. Uzushiogakure had been beautiful from the pictures in the book, with seals scrawled over buildings – she had discovered it was this skill with sealing that had led to their destruction, which was pretty sad but she knew that was the way of the ninja world. She had moved onto books about ninja techniques, and then taijutsu stances, and something called ‘chakra control’. She knew about chakra. Not a lot, but she knew about it! It was fundamental for ninja: it separated them from civilians, basically. From what the book said, if she wanted to be amazing she needed good chakra control, and the best way to start was to climb trees, and that meant funnelling chakra to her feet and running up trees!

“Thank you,” she blurted out the moment she saw Nozomi return. “Thank you so much, baa-chan. This has been amazing. So, so the Uzumaki clan are really well-known for being amazing with seals and having red hair and really long lives, and good healing. And my healing is amazing, so I have to be an Uzumaki!” Her voice gradually got louder and louder, the smile on her face lighting the room up. Nozomi couldn't help but smile back at the girl, even though her heart still ached with loss. _Naruto was only a child,_ she reminded herself. _A child who lost everything too_. 

“You’ve been here for five hours, Naruto-san,” Nozomi said, amused, her sad thoughts banished to the aether. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to close up for now, but… Go get some food, and be here early tomorrow morning. I will get you some ink, brushes and scrolls so you can write some information down to take away with you. The books will have to stay here.”

Naruto nodded eagerly and left, amazed and surprised at the turn her day had taken. She would get ramen after attempting to climb some trees. She was a badass Uzumaki. How hard could it be to climb trees with her feet?

Two hours later, she realised how hard it could be.

If she could just… Stop having so much chakra, it wouldn’t be so difficult. In her time attempting to clamber up the tree, she had discovered she had _a lot_. Arguably, it might not have been much chakra at all – she didn’t have a basis for comparison. The book said this was the easiest way to learn chakra control, and she was trying damn hard to funnel it down her legs to spread equally on her feet, but this culminated in three scenarios: she blew the tree up; she flew off the tree; she got about two metres up before doing either the first or second scenario. So she had tried cutting the flow to her feet and using the bare minimum… And blew up the tree again. That, to her, was abnormal.

She glared at the tree, pondering on the activity. How was she getting it so wrong? She _must_ have a lot of chakra. She could _feel_ it now, in a way she’d never considered. If she had to describe it, she’d call it a flash flood that never stopped, crashing over her in waves of pulsing warmth, and controlling it wasn’t easy. Maybe she needed to study more…

With a heavy heart, she went to Ichiraku's Ramen, hoping old-man Teuchi would let her off again.

The streets were dark and foreboding as she walked the dusty paths. She didn't know how late it was; all she knew was that this was a problem that she didn't know how to fix, didn't know how to solve. She was an Uzumaki. She had heaps and heaps of chakra. She could climb a tree, and yet.

"Demon girl," somebody muttered at her, but Naruto detected little malice in the words. Only sadness and loss. _Same as Nozomi-baachan,_ she thought with a small frown. _But how do I know what they're feeling_? She chalked it up to - once again - being a badass. She didn't look at the man, just slipped into the warmth of the ramen stand. 

"Naruto-chan," Teuchi said with a tired smile. "What shall we have today, hmm? It's a bit late for such a young lady... How about mixed vegetable today?"

Naruto furrowed her brow and nodded. "Teuchi-san," she said with a trembling lip. His kindness was, as always, overwhelming. "Why are you so kind?"

"Because you're an innocent child," he said simply, reaching over to ruffle her fluffy locks of hair. "And every child deserves a big bowl of ramen at the end of the day."


	3. Genin of Konohagakure

It had taken her three months to gain some semblance of chakra control. Three months to learn to climb a tree with her chakra, followed by water-walking, followed by sticking a leaf to her face – and even then she struggled with the leaf. She hoped to one day move it along her body and be a true master of her chakra.

She had gradually discovered that chakra was useful in many other ways too. For example, when she practiced her hooks, uppercuts and body shots on the wooden poles they kept at the good training grounds, if she pushed a little chakra into them, her hits almost doubled in effectiveness! 

If she pushed chakra into her legs when she was kicking said wooden poles, she could either stick to the pole, or she could absolutely annihilate it with one firm kick!

This discovery meant that she went from being dead-last during taijutsu spars to being around the middle of the pack. This wasn't difficult when the majority of her opponents were girls who didn't want to get dirty. More often than not, all she had to do was pin them to the ground and rub their face in the dirt a bit and they called the match! "Cheating," Iruka-sensei would mutter, shaking his head.

Her argument was that it wouldn't be cheating in real life. It wasn't _her_ fault the girls didn't train like she did. And when quizzed on her training, Naruto's helpful explanation that she did "three hundred punches and three hundred kicks before breakfast" made even the boys in her class groan.

* * *

Two years down the line, aged ten, she had shown massive improvement in the Academy, and her hair that she normally hacked short had grown to her shoulders. It was long enough that she could put two small buns on the top of her head, just like Uzumaki Mito, but she left half of it down. Nozomi, her trusted friend, had told her of a kunoichi who had once used her hair as a tool to create a trail when she was captured, which she thought was amazing and definitely something an Uzumaki should do!

She had also started dressing more appropriately. Thanks to Nozomi-baachan, she had clothes suited to a ninja, with fingerless gloves with metal plates being the best give she’d ever received. Instead of her bright orange jumpsuit, she wore a dark long-sleeved kimono-style blouse, with a bright orange obi over the waist and dark shorts, though they extended to just an inch above her knee. She also had some expensive steel-toed boots that went up to her knees, metal shin pads providing an extra boost to her kicks. Overall, she looked badass, which was very befitting of her Uzumaki status.

Today was a good day. It was the testing day, the day where she’d see if she was fit to be a genin of Konohagakure. Nozomi-baachan was excited for her, especially as the lady had become the main person running the library – Naruto had read all of the books available to her, made copies of most of them, and now had a pretty efficient knowledge of how the world worked. No, not true – she knew nothing about the world outside of Konoha, and if she became a ninja… She would gain more and more knowledge. She craved it. Any notes she wrote were sealed away in her apartment. Her sealing skills were still limited because there was nothing on the topic, but she could make storage scrolls that held lots of things.

It was her exploration into sealing that made her discover the seal on her stomach, and allowed her to come to the grim realisation she had more in common with Uzumaki Mito than their names suggested – they were both the scroll that held the kunai, the jinchuuriki to the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and the demon was the reason she struggled so much with her chakra. The first book she had read on Uzushio suggested that all Uzumaki had large chakra reserves, larger than normal humans, but hers were exponential. And… her chakra _sparked_. That was the only way to describe it. She didn’t have control, not yet, because every so often she got a strong jolt of more surging through her system. She had begun to realise that this was the fox’s influence, though she wasn’t sure whether it was a result of the seal or if the fox was… Trying to talk to her. Did demons do that? She had written essays about whether demons would do that. Her conclusions always reached the same point: demons wouldn’t do that.

“Uzumaki Naruto!” Naruto came back to herself, having got lost in her thoughts. It was her turn to be tested. She was… Not confident whatsoever. She had good chakra control, but her bunshins always came out looking mutated, sick, or dead, and she was very aware her taijutsu stance was the basic Academy one. Unlike the clan children, she didn’t have anyone to teach her, and Nozomi-baachan was a civilian. Nozomi-baachan’s brother, Kioshi-san, didn’t want to talk to her but supplied her with her clothes, scrolls that taught basic-level techniques, and restocked her apartment with food. She liked him for that, because even now she got sold rotten food from vendors if she went as herself. Her _henge_ didn’t help much, because she only got a small stipend from the Hokage that covered food. Clothing stopped being included when she turned nine.

She stood and followed the instructor, pleased to see Iruka-sensei as one of the examiners.

That didn’t mean it would go well, and it didn't. “She can’t do a bunshin,” Iruka-sensei said, expression pinched. “Which is, as we both know, one of the most basic techniques in a genin’s repertoire. I’m sorry, Naruto-san, but you failed.”

“Iruka,” the other instructor said, shaking his head. “But she made one materialise – yes, it’s not good, but…”

“No, Mizuki. Naruto-san, please report to the Academy in four weeks’ time if you wish to resit the year… Again. For now, you have failed.” Iruka was resolute. If she could not perform a basic technique, she would be a liability on the battlefield, and even though she had improved so, so massively, it wasn’t enough. He gave Naruto a gentle frown, unsurprised to find her eyes welling with tears before she bolted from the room, her oversized obi making a flash of orange as she left.

The girl ran and ran, hot tears painting her face with shame. She had tried so hard to be better, stronger, more powerful… She had discovered things about chakra control that she knew most genin’s didn’t know, knew she could destroy a boulder with her fist by powering chakra to her hands, knew she could run faster than most… But the bunshin alluded her. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t reduce her chakra enough to get it to work. Theoretically, she could make an army of them and it would work, but there was no field big enough for her to create thousands of clones that she knew of. In her tears, she didn’t realise she’d run all the way to the Memorial Stone. She sat here many evenings, stroking the names on the stone and wondering if any of them were her parents. She occasionally saw a grey-haired man there too, but he rarely spoke to her. He was there today, one eye fixed on her instead of the stone. “… Hello, brat,” he said finally. “What’s with the – y’know…”

“I-I failed,” she sniffled, rubbing her eyes and gazing intently at the floor. “I – I can’t do th-the bunshin so-so I failed!”

The man looked frightened as her sobbing increased, and he really, really didn’t know how to handle children. “So?” he asked. “Try again. Cry-baby.”

She glanced up, expression suddenly furious. The effect was somewhat ruined by her flushed cheeks, glassy eyes and running nose, but there was no way, _no way_ , Uzumaki Naruto was a cry-baby! She was strong and amazing and a total badass who just had too much chakra to do the bunshin! “Try again?!” she exclaimed. “I’m gonna’ be the most badass Hokage ever and I can’t even do a bunshin! I am Uzumaki Naruto and I am gonna’ be the best damn Hokage ever who can’t do the bunshin and when I’m in charge your ass is getting kicked for calling me a cry-baby!”

He gave her a weird smile. She didn’t know if he was smiling or not, but the curl of his one eye indicated a smile. Probably. “Okay, midget.” And then he disappeared. Naruto let out a war-cry, her tears forgotten. She would master the bunshin. It didn’t _matter_ that she failed, not really – she was still a badass, and all the best heroes had to face hardship.

“-Ruto-chan?” She perked up at her name, turning to face Mizuki-sensei. He had sympathised with her about failing, and was one of the few Academy teachers to treat her like a human. Admittedly, they didn’t get along, not like her and Iruka-sensei, but she liked Mizuki. Sorta. “I followed you as soon as I could – there’s another way to pass the exam, a bit like a field promotion as such…”

Field promotion? They were rare. But who was she to turn down such a gift horse? “Thanks, Mizuki-sensei,” she said, grinning once more. “Tell me more!”

Seven hours later, she was beginning to think this was the best prank she’d ever pulled. She’d stopped pulling pranks when she was taking her role as a ninja more seriously, but that didn’t stop her from planning them. She tried to plan them out and think like a ninja, which she thought greatly improved her skills in traps, sabotage and her strategies to attack problems. It was this that allowed her to break in to the Hokage’s place, steal the scroll as Mizuki instructed, and get out in record timing.

She spent her time with the scroll properly; making notes and digesting the information on the scroll. A technique for clones? She could practice that while waiting for Mizuki-sensei or Iruka-sensei to come tell her she’d passed, but only after she’d written some notes about the forbidden techniques in the scroll – there was loads of stuff on sealing there, with one seal looking like the one on her belly. She tried to avoid looking at that one, mainly because she was going to be the best jinchuuriki and she would never do anything to disrupt the seal on her belly.

An hour later, she was practicing the baby steps for the Multiple Shadow Clone jutsu – she firstly had to master the Shadow Clone technique, which… was easy. Another version of her poofed into existence, healthy and solid, unlike the Academy bunshin. “Cool,” she whispered, circling her clone and then giving it a chop to the back of the neck to dispel it. It disappeared in a plume of smoke, and she had the most unusual memory of being circled by herself, and looking at those trees… From another perspective. Her eyes widened in delight. The Shadow Clone had left her memories. She placed her hands together in the required seal and cried out, “ _Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_!”

If she had to guess, she’d say one thousand clones appeared. All identical, all perfect, all healthy. If she retained all of their memories, she was going to get an enormous headache once they all dispelled. If they learnt anything, would she learn it too? Did she just discover the secret to becoming the best ninja in the world? She was going to be the Hokage in _no time_. If her clones worked on chakra control, did she gain their control?

She had most of her clones dispel and got the remaining ones working on chakra control. She had all but forgotten about the scroll now, now that she had made her notes on what techniques she wanted, and instead focused on the boons of this new technique. So consumed as she was, she didn’t realise she was under attack until four of her clones had been dispatched with shuriken. She looked up, alarmed, and was terrified to see Mizuki-sensei staring at her with the same look of hatred that the villagers commonly looked at her with. She didn’t understand. Her instincts told her to roll up the scroll and seal away her notes, which she did as fast as she could. “Monster,” Mizuki spat, and there it was. He knew about the fox. “Hand over the scroll and maybe I’ll make your death quick, _demon_!”

“Naruto, don’t hand over the scroll,” Iruka-sensei barked, appearing from the gloom of the forest. She could see the sweat on his brow, the leaves in his hair, and a patch missing from his long-sleeved top. “Mizuki, this is low. She’s a child. Using her to get the scroll – you’re crucifying her!” He stood in front of her like how she imagined a father would, and the rest of her clones dispelled. She plucked a leaf from his ponytail and focused her chakra on making it move along her bare forehead, pleased when the clones’ memories of getting this task down seemed to work for her as the original. Interesting. So Mizuki-sensei was a betrayer…

In her musings, she missed Iruka-sensei getting impaled by a massive shuriken, but she didn’t miss the barked command to, “ _Run, Naruto-chan_!”

“No,” she said, wrapping the scroll up and using the strap to hook it on her back. “No. Iruka-sensei, I’m sorry. He told me – he told me if I did it, it would be a field promotion, and – and now you’re hurt. _No_.” Her body was filled with chakra, sparkling and _alive_ , enough to fill the deepest ocean. “ _Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_!”

If she had to guess, she’d say two thousand blonde-haired, bad-ass clones appeared. Her awe was lost in a haze of beating Mizuki to a bloody pulp, until the man’s limbs pointed in all directions and his chest resembled a burst egg – he was still breathing, somehow, but her clones’ fists were bloody while she hovered over her favourite teacher, making sure he didn’t move too much from the shuriken sticking out him. “Iruka-sensei, stay with me,” she whispered, checking his pulse like they told her to do in the Academy. She had to count the beats. But what did she do with the beats? One, two, three, four – oh, pointless, she didn’t know what she’d do even if Iruka-sensei _was_ dying – CPR was out of the question because the shuriken sticking out of his back, so…

“Naruto,” he whispered back, gazing at the destruction as her clones dispelled away again. Mizuki was a mess of blood and gore, pained whimpers leaving what was left of his mouth. It would be crude to call it a mouth; his jaw was detached, skull effectively caved in from how thoroughly the girl dispatched her opponent. “You… Pass.” He chuckled, albeit somewhat breathlessly. He reached up and removed his hitai-ate, placing it in the girls’ hands. “Now, I need you to… Spark your chakra some more. A bit like a beacon. Hokage-sama has ANBU and a certain jounin looking for you, but I know you. I know you, Naruto. I’m sorry you were deceived. I’m so sorry.”

“Iruka-sensei,” Naruto couldn’t help but smile, doing as he instructed. She could… Sense? Was that the right word? The man who was at the Memorial Stone was heading their way real quick, so she had a good feeling that they would be safe soon. “I pass?”


	4. Teamless?

She passed. Uzumaki Naruto was now a proud ten-year-old genin from Konoha, wearing an old hitai-ate gifted to her by her closest friend, Iruka-sensei, and she was the youngest in her class to have graduated. She was sure that during the war-times she would have been a very old genin, but her peers were twelve, thirteen years old, so she appreciated the age gap. It clearly meant she was a badass. Her class let out a few murmurs at seeing her, as she had arrived a tad late from the late-night excursions she had been through, but she hadn’t missed the team announcements and the substitute for Iruka-sensei gave her a wan smile as she sat down. Apparently, jii-chan had spun it so that Naruto had apprehended the scroll for him due to a fear of a traitor, took it somewhere she felt safe, and then battered the man to a pulp when Iruka-sensei had finally caught up to them. Apparently, nobody knew Mizuki better than Iruka-sensei, hence why a chuunin had been given the role of recovering the not-genin and Forbidden Scroll.

And the mourning man’s name was Hatake Kakashi, a jounin who had ruffled her hair (and ruined her Uzumaki Mito buns) and told her she must be pretty cool… For a cry-baby.

She was pretty cool. Which was why she must have the best team in the world… except her name hadn’t come up, and the substitute teacher was rolling up his scroll, so did that mean she was teamless? Panic surged through her. Was it because she stole the scroll? Was it all a lie?

She was about to raise her hand when the door got pushed open, and in waddled… A pig. This was closely followed by a tall, dark-haired lady in a dark kimono, her cheeks flushed as the pig caused calamity in the classroom. However, the flush did nothing to detract from the power she commanded when she announced, “Uzumaki Naruto to come with me, please!”

Naruto stood up in slight confusion, approaching the woman. The lady scooped up the pig and left, and so Naruto followed. “Hey, hey, lady?” she said, getting up to pace with her. “What’s going on? Who are you?”

“My name is Shizune,” the lady said, giving her a small smile. “And I am the apprentice to Tsunade-sama, the legendary Sannin. I am… Your escort, I suppose, as Tsunade-sama won’t enter the village: the Hokage has decided that with your progress in chakra control, you will be apprenticed under Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama for the next two years. You’ve been described as quite the prodigy, Uzumaki-san.”

“Call me Naruto,” Naruto’s eyes lit up, and she started to gain a little bounce to her walk. Of _course_ she’d heard of the Slug Princess. She was the granddaughter of Uzumaki Mito! So… Did that – kinda, sorta mean they were related? “Am I gonna’ be a medic-nin?” she asked, somewhat sullen at the thought though nevertheless excited. She just… Didn’t want to be a medic-nin. She had never considered it, given her massively accelerated healing rate.

“Judging by that face, no, Naruto-san,” Shizune’s tone was teasing and friendly, and Naruto was already starting to like her. “But Hokage-sama says you have achieved an acceptable level of chakra control given your massive reserves, and Tsunade-sama is interested in seeing how you compare to her. She’s… Well, she might tell me off for telling you this, but she’s technically your aunt, and the Uzumaki gift of large chakra reserves didn’t skip Tsunade-sama. She appreciates the sheer effort you have put in to controlling your chakra. When she feels she has taught you all she can, you will then be moved to another sensei – Jiraiya-sama, the toad Sannin. However, we – Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-san – can only hold onto you for two to three years, until you are deemed ready to defend yourself and learn to control your massive chakra reserves. Umino-san, your teacher… He said you made thousands of shadow clones. Naruto-san, those techniques were forbidden due to the fact that any normal ninja would have died creating so many, and that… Can’t fall into the wrong hands.” Shizune frowned, wondering how to phrase it. Tsunade-sama had muttered something about ‘ _Danzo_ ’ and his scheming to get to the young Uzumaki girl with her advanced understanding of her chakra. She was to be taken out of the village for her safety. “Your power isn’t the same as the other genin, and the Hokage feels personal tutelage would be better for now. You’ve blossomed very early.”

Naruto beamed. _I'm too good for the village!_ she thought with childish glee. _I'm too strong!_ “Where are we going now, then?” she asked. They were wandering around a bit aimlessly. “Why doesn’t Tsunade-sama like the village? Should I call her Tsunade-sensei? What should I call you?”

Shizune held her hand up. “We will first go to your apartment and pick up essential supplies. The Hokage informs me you have a unique take on storage seals, so seal everything away and we’ll get moving.”

"I need to go to the hospital before I leave, then," Naruto said, furrowing her brow. "There's someone I need to see!"

"Ah," Shizune said with a gentle smile, leading the way to the hospital. She was rather disgusted to see people glaring at her new... Apprentice - all because the girl had a demon sealed away inside of her. Yet the girl still smiled, still laughed, acted like a child in all the ways that mattered. _It's not fair_ , Shizune mused, glaring back. _She's a child_!

"Who do you need to see, Naruto-san?" Shizune asked.

"Iruka-sensei. He was my teacher at the Academy." Naruto flushed. "He gave me my headband! All because I'm a badass!"

"The Night of the Thousand Naruto," Shizune said with a laugh. "Yes, yes, your chakra control is something to be revered. Most jinchuuriki don't get to that point."

"Has anyone ever tried?" Naruto shot back, pouting. "Nozomi-baachan had to tell me what chakra was, and she's a civilian. 'M not surprised most of us carriers can't have chakra control when nobody fucking _tries_. Can't even buy tomatoes at the market. They pelted me with the rotten ones instead."

Shizune quietened down, lips pursed. _Are things really so corrupt here?_ She thought with a mounting horror, considering Naruto's height in relation to her parents. The girl was short where her mother was tall - _I suppose there's one obvious sign of malnutrition, then._ And she was going to send Naruto to the Slug Sannin, renowned for her lack of emotion when treating cases (unless there was blood involved, of course) - Tsunade would see Naruto as a case, a child to fix, instead of their apprentice.

"I suppose not," Shizune said quietly, combing her fingers through Naruto's hair and tugging out a knot. "I'm sorry."

"Don't fucking apologise," Naruto snapped at her, turning her face away. "S'not your fault. But it ain't mine either."

"Isn't yours," Shizune corrected softly. "And if you swear at me again, I will wash your mouth out with soap. We were told we were getting a genin, not a street urchin."

"Well I'm sorry to disappoint, _hime_ ," Naruto growled out, picking up the pace towards the hospital and leaving Shizune staring, slack-mouthed. _I shouldn't have said that_ , Shizune thought. _That was possibly the worst thing I could have said._

Naruto was bristling with anger, made worse when the receptionist curled his lips into a sneer at the sight of her. "Umino Iruka," Naruto snapped at him, her headband a comforting weight. They couldn't refuse her ever again. She was a kunoichi of Konoha now! Which meant fresh vegetables from the shinobi sellers, and fresh fruit, and a discount on her ramen! Not that she... Paid for it much - so perhaps she shouldn't take the discount on ramen... She was a kunoichi of Konoha who was going to pay back her ramen debt!

"Room 204," he said with a sneer, before answering the phone and ignoring her entirely.

_Room 204,_ she thought. She glanced at the signs in the hospital with her brow furrowed, before heading straight for the stairs. With only a little bit of confusion, she eventually stumbled upon room 204. She knocked on the door gently, nervous now, butterflies in her belly.

"Come in," her sensei called, and Naruto pushed the door open with a big grin. "Naruto-chan!" Iruka said in surprise, a similar smile splitting across his face. "Oh, you look so grown up!" he said.

Naruto glanced over his injuries, her sensei's chest swathed in bandages. He was sat up, though, so he couldn't be in too much distress. She took a nervous step into the room. "I've never been to hospital," she blurted out, staring at all of the equipment in the room. "I heal really fast. Why don't you heal fast, Iruka-sensei?"

"Naruto," Iruka said with a fond sigh, gesturing to the edge of the bed. Naruto rushed forward to take the seat. "Because of the Tailed Beast, Naruto. It heals your injuries for you. I know quite a bit about sealing, and you can almost guarantee there's something in your seal about a - a symbiotic relationship, if you will. You can take chakra from the beast, and... I suppose it can take things from you, too. Hopefully, it takes your humanity."

Naruto placed a hand on her stomach, the butterflies back again. "I need my humanity," she said numbly.

"No, Naruto," he laughed. "I think you have the power to change the beast. I really, really do. Now... Tell me about your team."

"I don't have one," she said, shaking her head. "I'm being apprenticed to Tsunade-hime. They want me to be a medic-nin and I don't want to be one. She told me off for swearing!"

"You swore at Tsunade-hime?" Iruka gasped.

"No, at _her_ apprentice," Naruto explained. "She said she didn't want a street urchin."

_Ah_ , Iruka thought, sighing. _Oops_. "I'm sure she didn't mean it like that, Naruto," he said in his best teacher tone. "She doesn't know you, or where you've come from. Nobody does. You're so young, Naruto. Nobody knows you didn't know how to read at the Academy for the longest time, because you don't... Pass. You're not obviously... Disadvantaged." He furrowed his brow, trying to think of the best wording. "You've spent so long passing as normal, Naruto, that they don't know you raised yourself. Because you are _clever_ , you are _bright,_ and you are so, so competent. You learnt a forbidden jutsu in a couple of hours."

Naruto listened with wide eyes. "Wasn't that hard," she mumbled, fingering the bed sheets. She wanted to tell him about the other jutsu she wrote down from that scroll; the jutsu that looked like the seal on her gut, for instance, or the Flying Thunder God technique with all the scribbles around it. She got the feeling that would be wrong, though.

"No," he agreed warmly. "But the amount of clones you created would have killed a normal man. And - Naruto, you are _not_ normal," he said, watching her wince. "You are so much better than normal, Naruto. You have graduated young. You have _learnt_ control, moreso than any other jinchuuriki before you. And it was all hard work that did it. You've pushed yourself so far, and I am proud to have been your sensei, Naruto-chan. Don't feel bad, or guilty, or hurt by what's happened. I'm so proud to call you a genin of Konoha."

"Thank you," she whispered, nodding her head slowly. "I won't be back for a while. Maybe even a few years. And when I get back, I'm gonna kick your ass."

"Looking forward to it," he whispered back, reaching out to pull her into a loose hug. She gripped him tightly in return, but he was a ninja first and foremost - so he let a little bit of pain show on his face, but bit back the curse that wanted to pass his lips. "Stay safe, Naruto-chan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could never kill Iruka.


	5. Meeting Tsunade

The dark haired lady - Shizune - had made herself scarce. She wasn't there when Naruto left the hospital four hours after visiting hours opened, and the woman clearly didn't know where she lived as there was no angry pig outside the building. _Woulda' really brightened the building up a bit,_ she thought, gazing at the place she'd grown up. The building had yellow and black caution tape on the main entrance doors, the doors big panes of glass that revealed the destroyed interior of the reception. One of the glass windows had been smashed through, so she didn't even have to push the door open when she went in!

She remembered a time, however brief and fleeting it was in her memory, where she would run up and the doors would slide open by themselves. The gentleman on reception used to smile at her, a tired old man, and give her sweets when she ran through. _"Naruto-chan,"_ he'd said in a kind tone. _"If you keep running like this, you'll fall over!"_ One day, he disappeared, and eventually the rest of the tenants in the building left, one apartment followed by the next. Sometimes they left the doors wide open and she'd take what she could; it was how she'd managed to get an actual bed, instead of her plush futon she stole from Kobayashi-san on the fourth floor. She didn't know many little girls who had an _actual bed_. However, having a bed had its own issues for a time: she used to stretch in her bedroom, but now she had a big wooden construction taking up the room!

But the thing was - nobody was left in the building, so she moved herself up to the penthouse suite - and when she'd cracked the chakra code, she scaled the side of the building instead of using the stairs! 

She climbed up the side of the building, hoisting herself up onto the balcony. Once there, she stopped to think again - stopped to _breathe_ , think, pause, reflect.

Her building had some rooms designated as love rooms, the rest of it residential. She disliked the fact she'd grown up in the red-light district, and disliked the fact Shizune-san had immediately pegged her for an urchin. She had hoped it wasn't so obvious, but adults had this weird way of telling when she was around. Now she knew it was because every adult knew who she was.

The demon brat.

She pressed a hand to her gut, pain flaring through her abdomen. Was it hunger, or was it the demon itself taking offence to her moniker?

 _It must be quite offensive,_ she thought blearily. _When I haven't even killed anyone yet._ All of the demon's successes, blamed on her! All of it's achievements in eradicating humans - pinned on her tiny shoulders. _No, it's hunger_ , she thought with a smile, letting herself into her apartment. "I'm home!" she called.

There was never a reply.

She huffed a small, sorrowful sigh, and produced four clones. "Clone one; bedroom. Clone two; kitchen. Clone three; living room. Clone four; spare bedroom. Go!" 

"Yes boss!" they all echoed, saluting her as commander general of the clones. "Welcome home boss!"

She smiled, following clone two to the kitchen. She had... Tomatoes just on the edge of going off, meat that was almost definitely edible once she cut the weird fluff off, and some rice. She clearly hadn't gone shopping in a while. _Waste not, want not_ , she decided, creating herself a meal with what was left. Clone two set to work sealing things into the wood of the cupboards, Naruto watching with interest as it created its own storage seal to do it. "You have some sentience, then," she said, using the big words that she only used when she was alone.

"Yes boss," the clone said amicably. "I gots all the information you've got and half the morals, cos I'll disappear with a fatal blow!"

"Could stick an explosive seal on you when you're formed and making you exploding clones," she pointed out, head tilted. 

"You could," the clone agreed, grinning at the boss. "Best we don't practice indoors, though."

"You're right, as ever," Naruto smiled. "I'm pretty smart sometimes, huh?"

The clone scoffed and stole the table, sealing it into a scrawl on the fridge. Naruto blinked owlishly, barely managing to catch her two bowls of food. The clone then sealed away the chairs, yanking the one out from under the boss and sending the girl sprawling to the ground.

Before Naruto could _kill_ the damn thing, the clone exploded itself, a laugh in the air.

 _Is this what having siblings is like?_ Naruto thought, eyes fluttering shut. Instead of warm, she felt hollow. She was humanising literal chakra clones of herself, which according to most psychologists, was a desperate cry for attention. It had taken her a while to realise that _yes_ , ninja _had_ psychologists, people to talk to when things got too scary in their heads. Civilians had used them for far longer, but shinobi and kunoichi mental health was the newest development.

She should probably see a psychologist after everything she'd been through in the past forty-eight hours.

"Done, boss," clone three reported, wandering into the gutted kitchen. "Clone two did a good job, huh? Wait till you see what _I've_ done," it said smugly, Naruto shaking herself out of her stupor and checking out the rest of her apartment.

Empty.

The silence was overwhelming.

Her building once bustled with life, but they all left because of her. _Street urchin_ , Shizune had said - but was she even that? So unwanted even the criminals on the streets didn't want her, even the old man at reception found out who she was and _left a three-year old girl with_ **no one**. 

Naruto gasped, and suddenly the floodgates opened. Huge, jerking sobs wracked her body, a low, keening noise escaping her lips.

She had nearly died.

She had nearly killed a man.

Iruka-sensei had nearly died for her.

She was alone.

She was unwanted.

She was being **sent away** , not because she was too _good_ for the village, but because _the village didn't want her_.

She had heard that the Uchiha kid got preferential treatment because it "took a whole village to raise a child", but she was a child. Wasn't she? She cupped her cheeks, felt the soft indentations of her whisker marks, and sobbed harder. She had formed in the belly of a jinchuuriki, nestled neatly beside the Kyuubi's chakra, and got fucking **whiskers** as well as the beast trapped in her **gut** and yet she was _Uzumaki Naruto_ , she wasn't _Uzumaki Kyuubi_ , she wasn't a monster - and yet Mizuki-sensei had tried to kill her, all because she was a baby who didn't get a _choice_ in the matter - 

And she thought of all the others, the jinchuuriki sat in their lonely apartments crying their eyes out because the world was _cruel_ and the world was _unfair_ and _maybe the demons were right to attack_ because humanity was _pathetic_ \- and she let out a wail, shaking harder like the _child_ she was - because she would never be accepted, never be normal, never be _weak enough_ to _fit in_. 

And suddenly she was being pulled into a warm hug, pressed against a large bosom that was both unfamiliar and yet comforting, strong arms like steel bands keeping her grounded. Pale blonde hair concealed the woman hugging her, but she felt _right_ , she felt _strong_ , she felt like the storm ripping through the village on October 10th, cancelling the Kyuubi festival and letting her enjoy her _birthday_ for once.

"Naruto," the person said, a strained quality to their voice. She sounded old and young at the same time, a wizened quality to her voice that made Naruto automatically listen. "Oh, Naruto..." The woman stroked through her hair, and Naruto wondered if this was what family felt like.

* * *

Shizune had _sprinted_ back to Tsunade's side. Thankfully, she was in an outlying market town in the Land of Fire, so it didn't take her long at all to get to her. "You need to see this girl, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said, panting slightly from exhaustion. "She looks _just like_ her parents - gods, she's tiny. She's... She's not what you expect at all."

"Not a spoilt brat?" Tsunade scoffed, knocking back her remaining thimbleful of sake. "I remember Mito, Shizune. The village adored her. Kushina too, if I remember correctly. Konoha treats its jinchuuriki well."

"Not this one," Shizune argued, shaking her head. "Not this one, Tsunade-sama. Please collect her. I know she would appreciate it. I _promise_."

"I'm not entering that village," Tsunade said vehemently, but the stubborn set to Shizune's jaw meant that she was, in fact, entering that village.

Which is how she found herself staring up at the oppressive gates, getting gawped at by young chuunin that looked wet behind the ears. "What?" she snapped at them.

"T-Tsunade-sama!" one of them stammered, still gawping. "W-we weren't told to expect you - !"

"No," she agreed, darting past them like a child slipping away from their mama at a market. She _hated_ the fanboys most of all. Little perverts. Now, to find the jinchuuriki...

She first started in the richest district, but there was no Uzumaki there, especially not an Uzumaki jinchuuriki. All she had to do was follow the chakra. She expected it to roll like waves, the way Kushina's did.

Half an hour later, she still hadn't found the jinchuuriki. She went to the shinobi bar - the Rusty Kunai. It hadn't been opened when she last came to this shithole. "Excuse me," she said, snapping her fingers and getting the attention of the room. Before the room could erupt into noise, she asked, "Where am I gonna' find the Uzumaki kid?"

The atmosphere in the room immediately shifted, something that set Tsunade on edge. She expected civilians to misunderstand the intricate arts of sealing - but she didn't expect the ninjas to. 

"Red-light district," someone muttered. Tsunade thought he looked a bit like the old pervert who used to run the medical bay at the Academy, and guessed it must be his son. "Can't miss the monster when you get close. It's the only building that's fucking condemned."

There was a hushed laughter in the room, and Tsunade saw red.

"Is that so?" she asked, cracking her knuckles. 

The man didn't even have time to run.

She picked him up by the throat and slammed him through the bar, bottles and bottles of alcohol raining down the crater she made using his body.

"Bill the Hokage," she grunted at the server, who looked like it was an everyday occurrence. 

The daughter of the Fourth Hokage lived in the red-light district.

Kushina would be rolling in her fucking grave.

Tsunade used the buildings to travel, rushing across the rooftops to the dingiest part of Konoha: its seedy underbelly of black markets, prostitution, and drug abuse. As she got closer, she could _feel_ the fucking Uzumaki jinchuuriki's chakra like a goddamn beacon, and the rage she felt was crippling.

 _Kept her safe_ , Jiraiya had wrote seven years ago, when the little babe was two years old. It was the last he had seen her, and apparently she had been a plump little thing with two tufts of Minato's blonde hair, well-fed and well-kept by the Orphanage in Konoha. He'd even included a picture of a smiling toddler on his shoulders. He had put several seals on the room she lived in, concealing her chakra and hiding her from sight.

So why was she living in an abandoned building, chakra burning through the area brighter than anything she had ever felt before? Why was Kushina's daughter not kept in the Uzumaki clan grounds with it's vast and plentiful suppression seals? Why was she unmonitored? 

Why was she in turmoil?

Her chakra was boiling like a storm in the desert; hot and powerful, angry and lashing out, _rich_ and fucking _innocent_ , crying out for _someone_ to notice her?

Tsunade was simmering with her anger, but she felt cold. She had trusted her friend, her teammate in ensuring Naruto's safety - but why would he look for threats within the village they both loved so much? What reason would they have for ignoring, abusing, neglecting their precious Hokage's legacy? How had they forgotten the might of their closest allies in the Uzumaki clan? Had they forgotten the legacy of Uzushio? How did ninja wear the Uzumaki clan symbol and treat one of its few descendants like this?

She took a deep breath and did an almighty leap, landing on the balcony with ease. Nothing kept her out; nothing blocked her from getting in. The door slid open with ease.

And there, on the floor, sat Kushina and Minato's legacy.

The child was tiny, Shizune was right about that. Nothing at all like the towering stature of her parents before her, though her hair was as golden as Minato's. She couldn't see much of her face because the girl was wailing up a storm, hurt about one thing or another.

It didn't matter that she was hurt, because she - Senju Tsunade, the Slug Sannin - was going to fix it.

She dropped next to the girl and pulled her close, the girl continuing to sniffle and wail into her chest. "Naruto," Tsunade whispered gently. "Oh, Naruto..." 

It felt like time had stopped. Naruto soon stopped crying with someone to hold her. "H-hello," Naruto said tearfully, pulling away to look up at the woman. "I'm - I'm Na-Naruto," she hiccuped. "Hi..."

"Hi, Naruto," Tsunade whispered back, her frozen heart thawing ever so slightly. In her mind's eye she could see Nawaki, tearful and swollen and chubby like the little girl in front of her, and her heart panged with the loss. "I'm going to take you away for a little bit. You know who I am, yes?"

"T-Tsunade," Naruto said, nodding her head like the little child she was. 

"Ready to go?" Tsunade wiped under the girl's eyes and clearing away the tears. She stood before the girl could say anything further, lifting her up as she went. "Anyone you need to say goodbye to?"

"No," Naruto said, shaking herself off. She grabbed a jacket from a coat stand and shrugged it on, fanning her face. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that, Tsunade-sensei. It won't happen again."

Tsunade shrugged at her. "It happens, kid," she said, flicking the girl on the forehead. With a cry, the girl went flying out of the open balcony doors and in a few seconds, Tsunade could hear the satisfying _CRASH!_ of a body hitting the ground.

Old girl still had it.

* * *

"Bye, Teuchi-ojiisan," clone three said, emptying Naruto's purse to give him all of her notes. "See you in two years, old man!" 

Teuchi went to reply, but the clone disappeared in a plume of smoke.

"Was that Naruto, papa?" Ayame called. Teuchi let out a noise of agreement, staring where the child once stood.

Across the town, another clone said goodbye to Nozomi. "Thank you for showing us those books, Nozomi-baachan," clone one said with a grin. "Boss has gotta' go but she wanted you to know she really appreciates it!"

"Naruto?" Nozomi said, rubbing her eyes in confusion as the girl disappeared in a poof of smoke. "I'll never understand ninja," she sighed. The books didn't respond - mind you, if they had, she would have known she was truly losing it.

* * *

"I'm sorry about earlier," Naruto said, cheeks flushed from embarrassment. To get kicked out of her own apartment with a _flick_ \- well, there were worse ways to get kicked out, but _still_.

Tsunade was a badass.

"You should have dodged the hit," Tsunade agreed, though she suspected that wasn't what Naruto was referring to. "But your forehead protector did it's job valiantly." 

Naruto gripped the broken pieces with a forlorn smile. "Yeah," she agreed, voice barely above a whisper. Her first real gift, destroyed by a flick. "Yeah, it did."

"Good job really. You don't want to be wearing that on our travels." Tsunade sighed, slinging her arm over the kid's shoulders. "Stop with the moping, brat. It's getting boring. Don't you get it?" Naruto blinked up at her. "This is freedom. This is it. I'm not keeping you on a leash. We're going to get you up to scratch and then you're going exploring with an old pervert - this is the _life_ , kid. This is the best thing the Hokage could have done for you."

Naruto nodded slowly, a pressure loosening from her shoulders. Or was it just Tsunade letting her go? Regardless - she did feel more freedom with every step away from the village. She turned, gazed at the gates as they closed, and her heart, which had the spent the entire day aching, warmed a little bit more.

Freedom. 


	6. Training with the Slug Sannin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of the comments, kudos, and bookmarks! I have a nice chunk of this story written but it grows as I go!
> 
> Warning: Discussions of what makes a kunoichi vulnerable towards the end of this chapter. This includes discussions of sex, contraception, and seduction missions.

Naruto had apologised to Shizune, one of the most mature things she had ever done in her life. Shizune had just ruffled her hair and apologised right back. 

It was... Weird.

She wasn't admonished for asking what words meant.

When Naruto had read the first chapter of _Healing for Beginner's_ , and kept asking what this word meant - _sanguination_ and then _exsanguination_ followed by _compound fracture_ \- Tsunade and Shizune told her what they meant. That was it. No complaining, no _you're so stupid Naruto_ , no criticism of her slower reading ability - instead she got _anecdotes_ because they weren't _stories_ , they were _real life_ about the various medical terms she encountered: and wasn't that interesting? To know that a far-off clan had the ability to _pop_ their bones out of their body and use them as weapons? To know that clan blood was a powerful tool? That the Hyuuga had a child kidnapped at night for her eyes; and that an Uzumaki child was taken from Konoha too, using her hair as a method to be recovered?

Because clan blood was important.

But something else struck Naruto: it was the second time she had heard of a child using their hair to be found, and Nozomi had smiled when she talked about it - Tsunade had looked sad, ordering herself a bottle of sake. Not a glass - a bottle. So it must have been someone she knew.

Naruto had her suspicions that it was her mother.

 _Would she be proud of me?_ Naruto wondered as they walked. They were on the hunt for live creatures to maim and then heal. _What did she look like?_

Naruto had visions of looking just like her mother. Wasn't red hair hereditary in the Uzumaki? So who was her father? She pulled out a small piece of hair and gazed at it, eyes narrowed. 

She wasn't a Yamanaka.

The only other (very) blonde person in Konoha when she was born was...

_The Fourth Hokage._

"Who's my mum?" Naruto asked. Tsunade faltered in step, but quickly recovered. "Tsunade-sensei, please - I don't even know her name."

Tsunade swallowed. Naruto's ears twitched at the noise. "Uzumaki Kushina," Tsunade said lowly. Naruto felt sadness rolling off her in waves. She just about caught the dusty old Bingo book thrown her way, the spine broken and bent with age and reuse. Naruto flicked through it, settling on a worn page.

 _The Red-Hot Habanero_ , it read, with an actual photograph of her mother. Cold brown eyes stared up at her, her mother's obscenely long red hair pulled into a ponytail and her Konoha headband pulled tight around her forehead. _She's so pale_ , she thought, glancing at her own tanned skin. _She's so beautiful_. And she was in every sense of the word: pretty, unblemished, with a rounded jawline that resembled her own, catlike eyes framed with thick red lashes. _An S-class ninja. Flee on sight. Jinchuuriki._ The rest of the page was blank, as though nothing was known of her abilities outside of her status as a jinchuuriki. 

Maybe that was threat enough.

At the bottom of the page in large writing it read: UZUMAKI KUSHINA. 

Naruto guessed the 'Uzumaki' was all that people needed to know.

"She's beautiful," she said, throat suddenly tight just as she wanted to speak. "She's so beautiful, and the bitch gave me whiskers, 'ttebayo."

Tsunade barked a laugh, clapping a heavy hand right in the middle of Naruto's back and sending her sprawling to the floor. "Can I keep this?" Naruto choked out, trying to catch her breath as she pushed herself back up. The book had fallen on another page, this one dog-eared.

 _NAMIKAZE MINATO_.

Naruto stared at the picture for a long while, before another statement caught her eye: _Connected to Red-Hot Habanero_. 

Naruto grabbed the book and closed it, but the statement was burned in her mind's eye. It didn't mean she was the daughter of the Fourth. All _sorts_ of things happened to kunoichi on missions - though she didn't really know what, outside of "sex making babies". Some women even got _missions_ involving sex. 

"Yeah, kid," Tsunade said. "I can tell you about her, if you like."

"Yes!" Naruto squeaked, eyes widening. "Oh my god, yes!"

"She was nothing like you," Tsunade sighed. "Too well-spoken, too well-trained from being in Uzushio, but... She had a fiery temper. She used seals when fighting which earnt her the S-class flee on sight order. She was Uzumaki through and through, and she had these... Chains. Strong enough to withstand the strongest Tailed Beast." Tsunade smiled, ruffling Naruto's hair. "Her healing ability was amazing. Mine's better, though."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, scooping up TonTon when the pig snorted at her.

"I store chakra in this seal on my forehead," Tsunade tapped the seal, making Naruto nod. "Because like you, I have too much. Bloody Uzumaki genes - so I store it, and when it releases, I get a huge boost of chakra that I can use to heal myself in times of duress. With me so far?" 

Naruto hummed in agreement. "We're going to do something like that with you. I'm no developed sensor, but I could sense you, Naruto, and part of that is due to the thing in your gut - but _most_ of it is because us Uzumaki have dense chakra. What do I mean by dense chakra, Naruto?"

"Erm... I guess... Heavy?" Naruto said slowly.

Tsunade ummed, not quite agreeing, not quite disagreeing. "The point I'm trying to make is it's distinctive. It's thick, almost, it's heavy, and it's suffocating. Close. Like a storm." Tsunade concentrated chakra to her hand. "Focus on this. What does it feel like?"

"I've never been to the sea, but... It feels like a storm. Your chakra always has." Naruto said, furrowing her brow. "But what are you implying?"

"You need to create your own seal," Tsunade said. "I call it the Strength of One Hundred Seal. You created over two thousand clones according to the old fart - and that's both amazing and terrifying, because that's dangerous. I don't think its been seen before... Not in your lifetime, anyway."

Naruto let out a questioning noise, and Shizune leapt in, "The Uzumaki clan are from Uzushio, Naruto-chan," she said happily. "Were. They were known for their extreme amounts of chakra, and I'm sure Tsunade-sama could create a good few hundred clones, but without her seal, two thousand would be fatal for her. But the theory is that the strain of creating so many clones would be too dangerous to even try, so... People would be interested in you, Naruto."

"It's probably because you keep the memories," Naruto said distantly, before focusing on the final comment. "Who's interested in _me?_ "

"Danzo!" Shizune said cheerfully, as Tsunade said:

"You keep what memories?"

And that was how Tsunade learnt Naruto had over two thousand memories of the same event, and that was how Naruto learnt about the true nature of the jinchuuriki.

* * *

"Heal this," Shizune said softly, Naruto moving her hands to where Shizune pointed and the wound stitching itself up with the chakra. The fox bucked weakly in her grip. "Naruto, you need to focus."

"I am," she whispered back, making a shushing noise at the fox. "It's hard with an audience!"

"Yes," Shizune agreed, glancing around the clearing uncertainly. They were surrounded by foxes, some big, some small - all of them staring. "Do you think they know we didn't do it?" she asked dramatically.

Naruto giggled softly, before cursing as her attention slipped. The fox yipped as Naruto pushed down a little too hard on a tender spot. "She's pregnant, I think," she said, sensing something extra about the fox. "There's something not... Right."

Shizune furrowed her brow, cupping Naruto's hands in her own and channelling the healing power to the broken leg. "I think you're right," she said, glancing at the foxes again.

"She's not pregnant," Tsunade disagreed, stepping into the clearing. "But she is dying."

"How do you know?" Naruto asked, furrowing her brow as she stared at her sensei. "How can you tell?"

"Because that isn't an ordinary fox. None of these are." Tsunade said, shaking her head. "Not even remotely. They're too damn big. And that one is fucking _purple_."

"You can get purple foxes!" the purple fox objected, all of it's packmates turning to stare at it. "Oops!"

"What's going on?" Shizune asked, pausing in the healing. Naruto carried on, absolutely boggled at the fact that a fox was talking. "You can see that, right? You heard that?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, eyes wide. "What the fuck?"

"Looks like you're getting a summons, kid," Tsunade said, clicking her teeth as the fox Naruto was attempting to heal disappeared in a plume of smoke.

It took Naruto with it.

"Oh!" Shizune cried out, drawing several senbon. "Give her back! Naruto-chan!"

"She'll be back soon if she's worthy," the purple fox drawled, sitting down on its hind legs. 

* * *

"Baa-chan?" Naruto called nervously, eyeing the - the realm? - place she'd been brought to. She was on top of a mountain, the small fox she'd been healing nowhere to be seen. The grass was thick and overgrown, wind blowing through thick wild flowers. Opposite the mountain was a huge hill the same size, with a huge burrow buried into the side of it. At the opening lay a _giant_ fox, the same size of the Hokage Mountain - or so it seemed!

"Hello?" Naruto tried. The fox didn't stir. It's fur was a stark white colour, which she thought made it an _arctic_ fox, but there was no snow to be seen. "Hey!" she bellowed.

The fox opened one big, purple eye, shifting its head and letting out a rumble similar to a snore.

"Hey!" Naruto cried, leaping forward and landing on the fox's huge head. "Don't ignore me, lazy!"

The fox let out a soft giggle and jolted forward from the burrow, beginning to run through the huge fields surrounding the hill.

"Hey!" Naruto said one last time, started to laugh. "What are you doing?"

" _Hello_ ," the fox said back. It was definitely a female fox. " _I'm Yuki. Who are you, handsome?_ "

"I'm Naruto!" Naruto chirped back, feeling absolutely dwarfed by the giant fox. "Where are we going?"

The fox didn't reply. She kept running, passing from big green fields into arctic tundra. It soon began to snow, making Naruto stare as the big flakes of snow got caught in her hair. She didn't know how far the fox had run, or even how fast, but they were so far away from the climate and atmosphere of the burrow that Naruto began to shiver.

The fox skidded to a sudden halt, sending Naruto flying off her great head and plummeting into the snow below. The girl leapt up immediately, but the fox was too busy preening to notice the evil glare levelled at her. "What's going on?" she demanded to know, putting her hands on her hips.

The fox blinked her great purple eyes at her, her head moving closer until Naruto was staring at a huge black nose, taller than her even with the fox pressed so tightly to the ground. " _A race_ ," Yuki said, single tail wagging like a pup behind her. " _To see if you're worthy of us. You tried to heal my kit, but she was too weak. She seemed to think you'd be a good match for us and wants to leave you her scroll. Let's see if you can race me back to my burrow. Winner gets the scroll_."

"And if I lose?" Naruto asked, a competitive gleam in her eye. She was honoured that the little fox wanted her to have the contract, and she wasn't sure if it was _normal_ to have a summon come to you, but what happened if she lost?

" _Then you're trapped here till you find the way out,"_ Yuki said with a big, threatening grin. " _And you can become my new nail lady_."

 _I can do that_ , Naruto thought, pumping her legs full of chakra and bolting.

Yuki didn't say when to start.

She remembered enough about kitsune to know they were tricksters, with a special kind of fox fire - so she had to get that extra head start, and with the added enhancement of chakra to her legs, she definitely had the head start!

She had cleared the length of a football field by the time Yuki had realised she'd started, and by then it was too late.

Naruto summoned hundreds of clones, all of them starting to set traps ranging from lethal to non-lethal, some pranks, some duds, and kept on running.

From the loud curses behind her, her clones had managed to trap the giant fox straight away!

With a wide, face-splitting grin, Naruto beat Yuki back to the burrow with ease, running as fast as her little legs could take her.

* * *

Shizune checked the sky, trying to work how long it had been. Had to have been at least an hour. She hoped Naruto was okay. S

With a loud crack, Naruto reappeared in front of them as the foxes disappeared, a victory sign on one hand and a slim, short scroll in the other. "Did it," she boasted, accepting the high five from Tsunade with a laugh. "I kicked ass!"

* * *

"Well done, Naruto," Tsunade said grudgingly. It had only been two weeks, and Naruto had mastered numerous aspects of healing that usually took about six months. She disliked Naruto using so many clones... But god, they were useful. "I think we should focus on more physical aspects to your training. Have you been storing chakra in your seal?"

Naruto rubbed two fingers on the pale purple seal in the middle of her forehead, nodding. "Yes, Tsunade-baachan," she said, the tiredest she'd been in a long time. "Lots and lots of chakra. But I've got a mighty headache."

"I could imagine," Tsunade grumbled. "We're nearly at Tanzaku Town. We'll check into a hotel and then you can sleep for as long as you need while I earn us some money."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune sighed. "You'll learn, Naruto-chan, that Tsunade-sama is a lousy gambler. The Legendary Sucker, they call her."

"I can help," Naruto offered. "I used to watch them play poker in the brothel. I learnt a lot of cool tricks."

"No," Shizune said immediately, rapping her knuckles on Naruto's skull. "No way."

Naruto was getting quite good at getting her own way, which was how she found herself - Henge'd into an older form of herself - dressed in a fine orange kimono, sat close to Tsunade around a poker table, kicking ass and taking chips. Tsunade wasn't fairing well at all.

By the end of the game, Tsunade had lost all of their money - and Naruto had won it all, with interest. They left the casino with a bag full of notes, Naruto smirking smugly as she dropped the Henge, the kimono now drowning her in fabric. "You suck, baa-chan," she said gleefully.

"I know, brat," Tsunade sighed, ruffling the brat's hair. "Glad to have you there. Just for that, I'll teach you my fighting style. Starts with a flick, and ends with being so feared people won't come near you on the field."

"Really?" Naruto gasped, eyes sparkling, following Tsunade to a small, open green area. "It's an honour, it really - "

_FLICK!_

With a cry, Naruto went flying. _At least I'm not plummeting out of a building this time,_ she mused, rolling to a stop. She sensed something above her and twisted out of the way, narrowly avoiding an axe kick to the back. She twisted and swung her fist back at her sensei, but the woman leapt back with the grace of a fox, a smirk on her painted lips.

"No fair," Naruto cried, rushing forward in a flash of yellow...

Only to trip.

Over.

Her.

Kimono.

With a cry, Naruto tumbled over the hem of her kimono, skinning her knees and putting her hands out to block the fall.

"Naruto," Tsunade sighed, walking over and hoisting her back up onto her feet. "We've got to talk about being a kunoichi. Properly. Your Henge tonight was distracting. Who did it distract?"

"Erm... The man next to you," Naruto listed off the people on her fingers, trying to place faces to lecherous looks. "Why?"

"You're only young, and I don't think the Academy talks about it much anymore," Tsunade said, tone softer than anything Naruto had heard from her before. And she'd cried into the woman's breasts. "Sit down."

They sat together, Naruto bent towards her mentor as she spoke. "A kunoichi is placed on a team of two men. Do you know why that is?"

"Because the men are stronger," Naruto rolled her eyes, sharing a fond look with the woman. "Because the woman is classed as more vulnerable, because she calms down tempers, because she's something for the men to work to protect..."

"Because the men need humanising," Tsunade agreed. If Naruto had been a boy... "Because the shinobi forces needed diversifying. Why have a man do a woman's job?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto furrowed her brow. "What does that mean?"

"Because women are distracting, because men think with their groins, because men are hot-headed and pumped full of testosterone - and women are a relief for that," Tsunade whispered, stroking through the girl's hair. If Naruto had been born a boy, she would have never taken the child on. And yet, Naruto was blinking up at her with _Minato's_ blue eyes and _Kushina's_ chubby cheeks - and Tsunade was doing the job of her parents because they made the stupid mistake of fucking and having a child and dying for the damned privilege. "I'm not saying the purpose of women is to comfort... But kunoichi are perfect for seduction missions, for getting male targets - and female, I don't discriminate - to get their marks through their hormonal urges. Women are whores, women are clever, women are bed-warmers, women are bad-ass... But you name all the successful kunoichi you know. Quickly."

"You, Shizune, my mum, Uzumaki Mito... Mitarashi Anko!" Naruto listed.

"And now the shinobi," Tsunade probed.

"Hatake Kakashi, Jiraiya, Jiji, my dad, Tobirama-sama, Hashirama-sama, Gai, Uchiha Itachi - " Naruto geared up to list more names, but she paused.

 _How do I know so many males?_ She thought with mounting horror. _Where are all the women?_

"Exactly, brat," Tsunade said, and she was _tired_. "Women follow men around with a bucket. We clear up the messes, we work with the civilians on the missions... No woman has been a Kage yet, though I like to think Kushina got close. Women get retired out when the horror of sleeping with their marks gets too much."

"Sleeping with...?" Naruto whispered. "But I don't want to!"

"No, and refuse every mission," Tsunade whispered back. "If you grow up like your mother... Refuse those missions, because those missions do more to a woman than any casualty could. The amount of Konoha kunoichi who are _missing in action_ and the damned Hokage can't get the funding to get them back... It's disgusting. It's wrong."

"So why do it?" Naruto asked. "How do they stop the _babies?"_

"Condoms, and the hospital provides a pill post-mission to terminate any... Developments, shall we say," Tsunade said, ever the medical professional. "Some women can access medicine before and during the mission to remove the chance of that occurring, but the mark may suspect something is wrong should they be used. Some women have been killed for less."

Naruto tried to equate this to students in her graduation classroom. There was a team of three girls, but if she recalled correctly, a lady came to collect them. The lady was unremarkable - Naruto couldn't even remember her hair colour. The girls were similar; nondescript, no different than the other people she saw at the market... "So they take girls who blend in?" Naruto assumed. "And make them - them have sex with people. Do they have any boys for the seduction missions?"

"Yes," Tsunade said, inclining her head. "That was sexist of me, I admit. They take boys too, though it is less frequent. There is a higher mortality rate in women, a faster turnover - and the men are better suited for the violent missions."

"So women are just toys," Naruto simplified, before frowning. "So does that mean I'll never be the Hokage?"

"I don't think there will be a female Kage in your time, Naruto," Tsunade sighed. "I can't see the world changing in your lifetime, nor mine. Consider yourself lucky you're part of a clan."

"Well, not really," Naruto argued back, though there was no fire to it. "They denied my clan. I had to read about Uzushio in a book. Iruka-sensei mentioned it, but he moved on pretty quickly. I could have been taken too, but they gave me to you instead. So what do you gain from having me? Would you have taken me if I was a boy?"

And Tsunade told the truth, as she always had: "I would have never taken another look at the request if you were male," she admitted, tilting her head back to gaze at the moon. "I've lost too many men in my life to lose another. But a female? I can work with a female."

Naruto wanted to be angry, wanted to rage that _that_ wasn't fair either, that Tsunade _was_ sexist against _men_ \- but was she? Tsunade had lived longer than most kunoichi still in service, hadn't had a baby as so many did, and had simply lived long enough to earn being spiteful, narrow-minded, and sexist to the core. 

"I won't lose you." Tsunade switched her gaze to the young girl in front of her, and it was testimony to Naruto's core when the girl met her gaze head-on. "You may get taken by Jiraiya when we've exhausted everything we can together, but I will never, ever lose you. I owe as much to your mother, struck down by her womb of all things. You are a _woman_ , Naruto. Not a man, not a male - a young woman, and you _must_ remember that the village does not have your best interests at heart. It has your ovaries in mind, just as it did your mother's."

"Bitch gave me whiskers," Naruto whispered back with a soft smile, cupping her face. Inside she felt cold, struck by how serious Tsunade was being. Thought of the huge gender disparity in her graduation class, thought of the little girls unwilling to get dirty while Naruto threw sand in their eyes. And that's all they were - little girls unaware of what they were getting into, same as Naruto - but those three girls who may have been taken for seduction missions at the age of _twelve_? "But she was loved, wasn't she? By the village?"

"As loved as a jinchuuriki could be," Tsunade's eyes darkened again, and her rage was palpable. "But they tore her from Uzushio, tore the beast from Mito's gut, and stuck it in Kushina at their earliest opportunity. Mito was useless to them; not a ninja, not a fighter, and she didn't share Uzushio's sealing secrets with anyone but family. She could have lived a little bit longer, but they wanted a new sacrifice for the beast, another weapon, another tool - so they killed my grandmother and made your mother a jinchuuriki, and then the daft mare had the cheek to fall in love and have sex and have you." Tsunade exhaled, trying to curb her anger. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular; the ninja system was cruel and unfair, but they couldn't _actively_ dissuade females from joining. Not when they had a purpose, and when men were obsessed with the thing between their legs. "But I think she knew she wasn't right, in the end. I think she mourned Uzushio, mourned the pink sands and the white buildings that shone red in the setting sun... And I would argue she's left you craving something more, too, with the way your chakra rolls like the waves on the beach. I think there's a part of you that knows Konoha isn't where -"

"I want to be," Naruto agreed, eyes widening. "There's an _ache_... I don't belong there. It's not home to me, but it's the only home I've known."

"And shouldn't you be so grateful to have a home?" Tsunade sighed. "When they leave their jinchuuriki in a building ripped open for attack. No seals to protect you, nothing to conceal you, nothing to stop people getting in there. You've been dragged up by a village that hates you, and yet you want to protect it. Ask yourself: why?"

_Why?_

She didn't have an answer.


	7. Meeting Gaara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still so grateful for the positive reception I have received. Your comments mean so much and truly inspire me to keep going.

After the conversation, Naruto grew overnight. Tsunade hated herself for breaking the girl's spirit, and yet.

Naruto had bought clothes at their earliest convenience, dressing for the figure of a woman she would soon grow into. Tsunade thought of Jiraiya's nosebleeds when he saw her breasts, thought of the men gazing at a ten-year-old in disguise, and didn't begrudge Naruto's attempts to draw attention to her whittled waist, the half-kimono flaring out from where the obi pulled it in tight. The illusion of hips to go with a tiny waist, knee-high boots with a high heel - Naruto had _aged_ overnight, gone from looking like a child to looking like the teen she was rapidly becoming. Plus, it was fashion in Tanzuka Quarters, young girls looking older with painted faces and long, feminine hairstyles - so Tsunade guessed she probably got the clothes and the boots quite cheaply.

"Your seal is wrong," Naruto muttered, gesturing to the hastily-scrawled storage scroll the Sannin had put together. "S'not gonna' hold all your clothes. You need to amend the swirl for Time."

"What do you mean?" Tsunade asked, furrowing her brow at her storage seal. It was the exact one she created every time. She had learnt from Uzumaki Mito herself. "That's what I always use."

"And it's always wrong," Naruto snarked back, always grumpy in the morning. With her chopsticks, she gestured to the line surrounding her kanji. "This is wrong. If you implemented a Time component, your Space would double, and you'd even be able to get your weapons in there. But if you amended the _Wood_ element, to something a bit more durable like _Metal_ , you'd be able to print it on your body and keep your belongings on your person."

"You cannot just print a seal on your body and hope it works," Shizune interrupted, eyeing the scroll again. "But... I can see that working on paper, Tsunade-sama. Might earn you some good money, too."

"You can. Watch." Naruto rolled up her baggy sleeve, followed by the tight black shirt she wore underneath. Tsunade stared as a _green_ seal - a green seal! - appeared on Naruto's flesh, and stared even more as Naruto _reached into her arm_ , her hand literally _getting swallowed_ into the Time-Space dimension she had created. The girl bit her lip, wriggled her arm, and removed a dark green raincoat. "See?"

"That's not normal, brat," Tsunade said, feeling sick to her stomach. She had once sliced open someone's chest, cut through their sternum, and squeezed their heart to keep them alive.

And she felt queasy watching Naruto _rummage around in her arm flesh_. 

"Is it not?" Naruto asked, and _oh,_ that was Naruto all over, breaking the known laws of Sealing like it was a normal occurrence.

 _She's so unpredictable,_ Shizune had sighed, trying valiantly to get glitter from her clothes. _So unusual_.

And Tsunade had thought Naruto's use of glitter in battle was unpredictable.

This?

This was revolutionary. 

"How?" Tsunade asked, grabbing Naruto's arm and gazing at the seal. It was unlike anything she had seen before, even as a young girl receiving her grandmother's knowledge of seals. Mito was clever, teaching her many things, and yet on reflection nothing at all. Tsunade had been corrupted by Konoha, obsessed with her grandfather's vision, and knew nothing of the roaring eddies of Uzushio; knew nothing of sea-salt on the skin, on riding the tide, on watching the sun set on rose-gold sands, a white ocean lapping at her toes. She knew thick, sturdy trees, the scent of rain on fresh-cut grass, the scent of the flowers in the spring. Tsunade was Konoha embodied; Naruto? Naruto was the thicket of trees protecting a coast from human corruption, Naruto was... 

Naruto was an Uzumaki.

 _The_ Uzumaki. 

"This is a kekkai genkai," she decided, though she wasn't sure if it was that. Perhaps the ghosts of Mito and Kushina had imprinted on the girl, changed her knowledge, changed the way she viewed things. The ghosts must have imparted knowledge from far beyond, the last gift for this Kyuubi jinchuuriki - a gift for the hardship was due to face, a gift for a girl in a world so cruel to them. "This is illegible to me. This isn't a seal to me, and I was trained by Mito-sama herself."

Naruto pursed her lips, opened her mouth, but Tsunade kept going, gripping Naruto's waist tightly between her hands: "This swirl is characteristic of Mito," she said, almost frenzied as she checked Naruto's other seals, even the one on the soft skin of her belly. "You see? This is an imperfect seal - no Uzumaki could stand for this, but this was Minato's best work. This is a bloodline, Naruto; this is your birthright. These aren't seals anyone could copy - they're too intricate, they're literally tied to your chakra." Tsunade almost shook the girl who seemed _so_ unimpressed, so unconcerned by this revelation, even though it was changing everything Tsunade thought she knew about her precious grandmother and the family the woman left behind. "Kushina tried to do this, Naruto. Tried to create a storage seal on her body, but she couldn't. But you can. You have. This... This is your own bloodline limit, Naruto."

 _The Uzumaki blood must have mutated with her_ , Tsunade thought, thinking of Kushina's parents. Uzumaki Menma, brother of the Second Uzukage, son of Uzumaki Hiroyuki and Uzumaki Amaya. Who was his wife? An Uzumaki for sure, but what had been her name? She couldn't recall. "This is a gift," she repeated, losing the frenzy as quickly as it came, as she did with many things now.

"Your seals are still shit," Naruto shot back, slurping ramen like the child she was. "And your seals can still be made better, 'ttebayo. Don't blame my bad-assery for the fact you can't write a storage seal for shit."

* * *

It had taken four weeks of learning with Tsunade for Naruto to hear what ‘Akatsuki’ was, the group of S-ranked ninja attempting to collect jinchuuriki for ‘extraction’. This caused a significant change in her attitude, and was the main reason they were heading to _Sunagakure_ , the first **Hidden Village** outside of Konoha she had ever been to, and where they were to be based for the next two weeks while Jiraiya-sama gathered as much intel as he could before he took over Naruto’s training. Tsunade, while disgruntled at Naruto's progress with healing despite her aversion to it in the beginning, was going to miss the little brat when she left. She had learnt how to create new and improved storage seals, even managed to condense them down to a single slip of paper - but the first time she'd lost a slip containing her _pants_ , well, she very nearly took Naruto's head off.

“Tsunade-baachan,” Naruto called, muffled by the cloth over her mouth. Her eyes were covered by orange and grey goggles, protecting them from the sandstorm. “I think we’re getting close. There’s five men waiting at the entrance. One of them is more powerful than the others. I think it’s the Kage.”

Tsunade smiled, her eyes narrowing just so. The Kage had come to meet them, enticed by the knowledge she possessed about Akatsuki. This was never to be her purpose, babysitting Minato’s and Kushina’s brat. But... Naruto had blossomed early, much like she had, and the Hokage had informed her of these changes; he feared the village’s reaction to her, especially as her form was becoming womanlier and her power was growing so quickly. The young girl was foxlike in features, more Kushina's child with Minato's eyes. ‘ _The girl is particularly inspired by Uzumaki Mito… I think you should meet her, Tsunade. I really think you should._ ’

He _had_ offered her a substantial payment to look after the brat, something she refused after meeting her. When she'd told the little brat, the girl had laughed and said, ' _Shoulda taken it, baa-chan. I coulda used that money!'_

She had been impressed, despite their rocky start. Wild and untrained, and yet so cunning and intelligent in the way she threw her body around in a spar. She had hid her smile when the child threw dirt in her opponent's eyes and kicked them in a 'delicate' area (funnily enough, Naruto only did this with men). Chakra more than double most jounin, and yet she had some modicum of mastery over it. Moving leaves across her body like a dance… Intelligent and proud, and yet so disgustingly headstrong like her mother that Tsunade wanted to beat her across the head with a book, sometimes.

So much like her mother it was hard to witness, and yet…

Getting her away from that manipulative fucker Danzo was the original, and only, plan. From what she deduced from her meeting with the Sandaime, Danzo had made moves to get Naruto into ROOT the moment she displayed the two-thousand clones against Mizuki. And equating the ball of sunshine she knew to those… those _zombies_ – she shuddered to think of the impact ROOT would have had on the brat. Or, worst yet - what would Naruto have done to the kids being brainwashed? She would have ruined years of conditioning!

Plus, she didn’t realise ROOT started so young. While Naruto wasn’t young compared to some graduating the Academy in her time, Tsunade was sure ROOT could only recruit those old enough to understand what was happening. Or was that the point of it all? Child soldiers, weaponised obedience - and yet the village did that too, giving children knives in the Academy... Tsunade's expression darkened at her own traitorous thoughts, and yet. 

And yet the Hokage _allowed_ Danzo to take children for experimentation, for mental conditioning, for becoming soldiers, something that got her teammate banished in the same vein.

 _For the Glory of the_ _Motherland_ , she thought, thinking of children with dead eyes and seals on their tongues keeping them tongue-tied. Tried to picture Naruto's blue eyes, so vibrant and so lively, dull and dimmed with the horror of conditioning. Thought of Kushina finding her in spirit, thought of the _rage_ Kushina would possess, and remained grateful that Naruto was _female_ , was _lovely_ and _clever_ and _different_.

“Thank you, Naruto-chan!” Tsunade called, slowing in her fast pace as the sandstorm suddenly stopped. Yes, the Kazekage was there, just as Naruto had sensed - not that Tsunade had reason to doubt the child who grew from strength to strength every day. “Kazekage-sama,” she murmured, leaning into a half bow. Beside her, Naruto stooped low as practised, while Shizune was somewhere in the middle. The Kazekage echoed her movements, his eyes fixed on the young girl with the two women. “This is Shizune, my apprentice, and Naruto-chan is apprenticed under Shizune. I apologise for my hasty scroll, but I do believe my comrade sent along further correspondence. We are rather tired from our travels.”

“Yes,” The Kazekage hummed and inclined his head at a masked man at his side. “Mukade-san will take you to one of our finest establishments for rest, but I do require a personal meeting with you soon, Tsunade-sama. This evening, if you’re available.”

“Of course,” Tsunade agreed, inwardly disgruntled about not having the chance to get some strong sake down her throat and check out some casinos. “But I am afraid Jiraiya holds all the cards, so please forgive my lack of knowledge later. Shall we?”

Naruto grinned, rushing forward to enter the pretty village. It was so different to Konoha, and there were so many kids! They all looked rather serious, but Konoha didn't have nearly as many children. She knew why, of course, but she tried not to think about it. Mukade-san didn’t speak much, but she knew he was listening to her excited babble. If she focused just a little, she could even tell he felt a little amused. Tsunade would approve of her child-like behaviour, setting her guard at ease and letting him lower his defences. Nobody looked twice at a child. “So, in Konoha they have _all_ the Hokage’s faces carved into the mountains! It is _so_ pompous. I think it’s pompous. But my face is gonna’ be up there too one day!”

A sudden commotion caught her attention. It was demonic chakra that was rising in the air like a thick, cloying fog of rage. She had learned the difference in one of her early spars with Tsunade. While she was no match for the Sannin, this was a particularly bad day that had caused one of her clones to enter a ‘one-tail mode’. The chakra shroud had been a deep maroon, bubbling with hatred and rage, two thickly defined ears making her hair twist upwards into horns. She had dispelled the clone after freezing, the sheer killing intent the clone was leaking scaring her to the core. The rage attacked her then, the chakra cloaking _her_ instead of _her clone_ , but she managed to retain control.

_"Naruto-chan," Tsunade had said over the roar of **kill kill kill** in her ears. Naruto had chirruped like a small bird, head tilted as she gazed at her mentor. The chakra was thick and dense, every inch powerful and ready to destroy. "You need to calm now, brat, because the seal I've got in my hand will make this so much more painful for you if you don't calm down."_

_And Naruto wanted, so badly, to run. Wanted to rip, to_ _**tear** , to hunt, to destroy. She felt power coursing through her veins, and she wanted more._

_But._

_She **loved** the lady in front of her, both of them, wanted them both more keenly than she'd wanted anything before; wanted love, wanted kisses, wanted food and hand-holds like mamas did with their children at the park, and **oh** , that wasn't fair - she wanted a mama, a mama, **her** mama with her lovely red hair and her sweet smell of storms and burnt -_

_how did she -_

_how -_

_How did she know what her mum smelt like?_

_Naruto's eyes had fluttered then, the scent thick in her nose, in her throat: the sweet smell of storm, and the burnt scent of flesh as her mother slumped over her._

_And Naruto knew, intrinsically and painfully, that this wasn't her memory._

_It wasn't her anger, and it wasn't hers to keep. The smell was wrong, because... Because that was the smell the Kyuubi smelt when it cut her mum through, and the rage faded slowly, and then all at once, leaving her blinking back sharp tears as her mother's burning flesh filled her nostrils, a ghost of a memory that wasn't even hers._

Tsunade-sama never mentioned it, but she knew that Shizune had been a little scared of her. She could _smell_ it on her, like she still smelt her mama's smell, sickly and cloying with childbirth and death and life, ensnaring her senses but grounding her in the moment once more.

“Woah,” she cried out, bolting towards the source before Tsunade could clamp a hand on her shoulder. Her speed was her favourite talent, not least because Tsunade couldn't keep up. When she moved, she got told she was like a yellow flash. Not as fast as the Fourth Hokage, but one day she would be. She knew it. And if her guess was correct… Like father, like daughter. “Hey, hey!” She didn't want this jinchuuriki to make the same mistake. In that moment, Naruto _understood_ why people hated her.

Because she was - the beast was - they were _scary_.

There was a boy at the centre of the chaos, sand tendrils whipping around him in a flurry of rage and pain. She could make out crimson hair and very pale skin before sea-foam eyes were on hers, and a sand tendril was hurtling at her. She dodged and practically danced closer, winding around the tendrils. They were sluggish compared to her, and she got within inches of the boy before the tendrils wrapped around her ankles. “Hi,” she beamed, sticking her hand out. The sand wrapped around her wrist. “I’m Uzumaki Naruto. What’s your name?”

The sand slackened ever-so-slightly, but those eyes narrowed. She wasn’t safe just yet. Tsunade-sama was taking her time following, although Mudake-san’s mood seemed quite stressed out compared to Tsunade’s amusement. “… My name is Gaara.” His voice was thin and quiet, but there was an undercurrent of rage that Naruto couldn’t help but marvel at. His demon must be really close to the surface. Maybe his seal was bad. 

The boy disappeared in a flurry of sand. A shunshin at her age! And she didn’t know how to do that yet! A _jinchuuriki_. She wondered which one he was. “Tsunade-baachan!” she cried, spinning around with hearts in her eyes. “I have to make that boy my friend!”

* * *

It had been four days and she still hadn’t found the demon boy. However, she had learnt a lot in those days, sending her clones out to learn information and phase out slowly. She had learnt, _Henge_ ’d as a cat, that Gaara-san was the jinchuuriki of the One-Tailed Beast. Hidden as a moth, she had learnt the names of his brother and sister, as well as discovering that not only was he like her, he was the Kazekage’s son. They had a lot in common!

In her travels around the Hidden Village, she had also discovered gravity seals. The ones the shop were doing seemed wrong, like they would fade frequently… But the one’s _she’d_ thought of… If she placed them on herself in ink, they would sink in and exist semi-permanently, up until she wanted them removed. Her practice ones were full of swirls and symbols, nothing like the shop owner’s ones, and while the understanding was lacking, she knew that she just used her chakra to increase their effectiveness. Less restrictive compared to material weights, they were perfect for her speed, stamina, and strength training.

Tsunade-sama had been gobsmacked but ruffled her hair with a pleased grin. “Just like your father,” she had said, making Naruto even more certain of who her father was. She would wait to ask Jiraiya, as Tsunade wouldn’t be surprised. Jiraiya would, so it would put him on the back foot to answer her honestly. And the man was supposed to be her godfather, so she had every right knowing.

Despite her many disguises and many visits around Suna, she had no idea where to find the jinchuuriki named Gaara, but _god_ she was desperate to. It eventually hit the point where she asked Mukade-san, who was their guide ( _stalker_ ) whenever he was available. “Where is he? Where does he live?” she pestered him, until his will gave in. She had a present for him. She was going to give him a handmade fox plush – and by handmade she meant the eight other tails she had haphazardly sewn on. She had stolen eight of the foxes to steal their tails, and returned them tail-less like a good person would!

“Fine,” he snapped, leaping to the rooftops. She followed after a moment’s hesitation. “Fine, you insolent child!” He led her to a run-down apartment block, and her heart panged just a little. They had a lot in common. “He’s in there somewhere, sulking. Don’t rile him up, Naruto-chan – _Kami_ knows Tsunade-hime would have my head if you got even a scratch.”

“I heal quick,” she jibed back, before sauntering into the building. She spread her chakra as wide as could, meeting Gaara’s chakra half-way up the building. She bounced up the stairs, sensing his mood to be a bit confused and largely flustered. “Gaara-san!” she called. “Knock knock!”

There were several doors to choose from, but she followed the trail of sand. Seemed easy. He flung the door open, rubbing the Love tattoo on his forehead. “What?” he asked, tone wary. “You’re… that girl.”

“Uzumaki Naruto,” she agreed, flashing him the cheekiest grin she could manage. She pulled out a scroll from her pouch and unsealed the plush toy. “Gaara-san, I am Uzumaki Naruto, and I would very much like to be your friend. This is Kyuubi. He’s yours to keep now.”

And he _knew_. She could see from the look in his blackened eyes, the flaring of his nostrils and the sand rising to attack. “How?” he hissed through gritted teeth.

 _How what?_ She wondered. How did she know? “S’not that difficult. I can… Kind of sense chakra, I think, but Tsunade-sama isn’t sure where it comes from cos’ my mum didn’t have it - she had something else. I could feel the demonic chakra.”

“How are you happy?” Gaara said, so quiet she almost missed it. The sand sagged behind him. “Why are you happy?”

“Because people like to make you miserable when they’re miserable too,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “They’re the monsters. Not us, Gaara-san. They’re miserable, and they want to hurt you because they don’t understand. But one day they will.” She smiled, reaching out to flick his forehead like Tsunade did to her. The sand didn’t stop her. She half-expected it to. “You’re just the scroll holding the kunai, Gaara-san. Believe it.” Her eyes widened and she pulled out her wallet. It was a present on her sixth birthday – a big fat toad, full with money she had earned from gambling with Tsunade. “Shall we go get some food? Ramen?”

“Ramen?” Gaara asked, disgruntled and confused. He slipped on some sandals and, for the first time in a long time, left his gourd of sand in his flat. “Dango.”

“Dango?” Naruto grimaced, but settled on it. Dango wasn’t her meal of choice, but if it meant she could get to know her new friend better, that was fine with her. “Dango, then. Lead the way, Gaara-san.”

Gaara wasn’t much of a conversationalist, content to listen to her babble. More than once she’d caught him staring at her, but she liked to think it was the sun glinting off her hair or something. Maybe this was a date! Shizune said she was too young for dates, but… This was good practice. Between training and travelling, she had learnt what drove Tsunade to leave Konoha and learnt a lot about love. The love of a good man kept Tsunade strong but made her weak enough to leave. Or was it strength to leave everything behind? Losing the men she loved highlighted the true disparity between men and women in Konoha: male bodies were recovered, given funerals, buried in the Shinobi graveyard that was maintained every two weeks - and females, if they were lucky enough to be recovered, got to live in the Kunoichi graveyard that was overgrown, headstones tilted, and hidden away.

Even the bodies were crated in a metal mesh to avoid people stealing organs. Naruto didn't understand how she still wanted to _love_ and _protect_ her village, wondered if she ever did or if she was just susceptible to propaganda as all were.

“Gaara-san,” she said rather suddenly, glancing around. People were staring, ushering their children out of their way. She glanced down at her clothes, wondering if she smelt or looked unclean but found nothing noticeable. She had taken to wearing an orange cut-off jacket not dissimilar to Tsunade’s, with the lengthy sleeves but cut at her waist. That meant they were staring at Gaara, which wasn’t fantastic. “I mean it.”

He looked at her, raising non-existent eyebrows.

“I want to be your friend,” she whispered, reaching down and putting his hand in hers. She hoped, quite childishly, that it would save him from the glares, wished someone did this for her when she was young and vulnerable to their glares. It didn’t stop them staring. But people looked confused now, uncertain, and perhaps changing their perceptions in that sense would be all she could do for now. “But I’m from Konoha, and, and I’ll be exploring a lot. I don’t know how frequently I’ll be able to talk to you. I could ask Tsunade-sama if I could borrow her slugs to send letters to you! But I don’t know if they’ll like that…” She worried her lower lip, blinking big eyes at him. “What do you think?”

“This is a foolish venture,” he said finally, seemingly transfixed on their hands. Mother was extraordinarily quiet around this girl, this jinchuuriki. He hated it. But he liked it, in a weird way. He had vowed to never have friends, but… “But I will be able to find you whenever I like, and I will find a way.” He nodded his head, resolute. She had eyes like him sometimes, when she saw _them_ staring. He would make _them_ pay for staring at her.

Naruto smiled. "Little bit weird," she whispered, giggling into her hand. Gaara looked shocked, almost offended, before his lips twitched into a parody of a smile.

But it was a smile.

* * *

Gaara didn't know what to make of the girl. Naruto. The girl. 

Naruto.

She had whiskers and blonde hair.

It wasn't like Temari's shade of blonde. It was like the sun, sometimes, hard to look at and blinding. 

She was distinctive. People didn't like her. He didn't like _them_. 

He was trying to be better. _But what about making them pay?_ Mother asked, and...

And Gaara obeyed, because he just wanted to be a good son to his Mother and father - but his father didn't love him like Mother did. _Neither will she_ , Mother hissed, a dark undercurrent of anger in her voice today. He wondered if she needed blood. She needed a lot of blood. _You think that Kyuubi brat will love you? No, I know the Kyuubi -- he'd never let her touch you. My son. My lovely boy..._

How did Mother know the Kyuubi?

No matter.

 _I'm waiting for Naruto_ , he told her, unwilling to argue even if he disagreed with her. Being around Naruto meant Mother went away sometimes.

He liked Naruto.

"Freak!"

Gaara startled, left his moment of introspection, fingers curling tightly on the rope of the swing. It had... Been a while since someone had approached him so... Brazenly. Naruto was late. She said she'd be here. Naruto wouldn't betray him. 

"Just die, freak!" they cried. They were tall. A human adult, he thought. Or on the cusp of it, their scent thick with the undercurrent of boyhood, of unwashed sheets and girls.

They - he - didn't have a headband. A normal, then. 

_Kill, kill, kill,_ Mother cooed. Gaara resisted. _Naruto's coming_ , he thought back, thinking of the games they would play. _Tag, You're It_ , he thought, almost smiling. Or was it just Tag? He had heard some children call it Tig. Sometimes they played Kiss Chase. 

He wanted to play Tag, You're It with Naruto.

 _Dodge, dodge_ , Mother said with a rising panic, and Gaara was unceremoniously shoved from his swing. 

Nobody ever got close enough to touch him before.

 _Kill_ , he agreed, sand enclosing his assailant's body.

His hand moved, he murmured, " _Sabaku Kyuu,"_ and his assailant didn't struggle.

And then, _"Sabaku Soso_!"

Blood.

Mother _sang_.

Naruto cried out.

Her pretty blue sundress was covered in red, sticky blood, hot and slippery and sweet and _oh,_ Gaara wanted to _crush_ her pretty little bones, _wanted so badly to kill - tear - maim ---_

Naruto looked nice today. Her gold hair was pulled into two ponytails. He never noticed how long her hair was before, but it was - even in two high ponytails, it tumbled to her waist. Temari hated long hair.

Her blue diamond in her forehead was a new development. Was that always there? Her gold hair normally covered it, he thought. A pretty blue clip held the hair back. She was wearing matching sandals, not even the ninja kind. And they were slick with red blood, and - 

_Intestine,_ Mother said gleefully.

Naruto looked like the girls he saw with their boyfriends, but normally they didn't have blood on them.

"Naruto," he said, and Naruto's expression crumbled.

"Gaara-kun," she said in her strange not-normal accent. "Oh, Gaara..."

And then Naruto tried to leave.

His sand curled around her feet in desperation, and he wanted her to _stay_ , not go, not leave --

"We need to tell someone, Gaara-kun," Naruto said kindly, and that was right. Naruto was kind to him. Not like Yashamaru, because Naruto held the Kyuubi, and Naruto understood. "And I need to change my clothes. This outfit was new, 'ttebayo!"

Gaara loved Naruto like he loved Mother.

He wanted to keep Naruto.

* * *

According to Tsunade, Naruto's friendship with Gaara made the Kazekage ‘happy’. From what Gaara had told her about the man, Naruto guessed this wasn’t the case. The Kazekage probably saw it as a political act by having the two be friends, but she couldn’t work out his motives. As far as she knew, the relationship between Konoha and Suna was strained at the best of times. She had spotted the Hokage’s faithful hawks flitting to and from the Kazekage’s tower, so perhaps this relationship was developing as a result of her and Gaara’s intense friendship.

“Naruto!” Tsunade’s voice cut through her thoughts and she shook her head, clearing them away. “Naruto-chan, this is Jiraiya. Ero-sennin, as you call him,” Tsunade smirked at her teammate, who huffed out an illegible complaint. “Jiraiya, this is Naruto.”

Naruto eyed the man, and in those few seconds changed her act ever-so-slightly. With Tsunade, she was calm, collected, even grumpy. With Jiraiya... She could get him on side, act like a child... And have him wrapped around her little finger. “Hi,” Naruto said cheerfully. “Is my father the Yondaime Hokage?”

Jiraiya spluttered, and that was the answer to her question. She knew it. Jiraiya span Naruto around, shaking his shaggy hair. “He wanted you to be seen as a hero,” he said in a gruff tone of voice, almost sorrowful. Almost. “But – “

“Miserable people like other people to be miserable,” Naruto mumbled, mulling over his name. What if she had been born _Namikaze Naruto_? What if they had survived? "Why did they pick me to carry the beast?"

"Because Kushina had," Tsunade sighed. "And you were the only one they trusted with the responsibility."

Naruto narrowed her eyes. _I'm the only one with the right chakra_ , she deduced, reading between the lines. _I was the only baby who could. It would make sense that only an Uzumaki could carry the Kyuubi because of my chakra, but I still don't know why that makes a difference. I'll have to investigate it._

It didn’t feel like such a burden now, containing the beast. Her mother had carried it; Mito had carried it. It felt like an honour to continue the tradition of carrying it, even if she hated the fact that _she_ was a sacrifice. Her… Parents had entrusted her with such a massive responsibility. Her parents loved her, and that was enough. “Okay, thank you. Old man, can I say bye to my friend first? And can we go to Uzushio?”

“Uzu- Naruto,” Tsunade barked, “It’s a ruin, brat – Jiraiya, don’t give her that look!”

* * *

"You told me she was safe." Tsunade said quietly, over the pleasant thum of the cafe they were in. There was a live singer, and Tsunade quite enjoyed the iced cinnamon buns they were selling. She could do without the sand between her toes. "You told me she was in a sealed room."

"She was," Jiraiya said, his brow immediately furrowing at her tone. "So cold, Tsunade-chan! I looked after her, you know I did-"

"You didn't, Jiraiya," Tsunade said, and she was so _tired_. "She can barely read. She's slow. I had to explain to her what a _fracture_ was, because even though she's had plenty of broken bones if you ask the Hokage, she's never once been treated for them. Because the beast does a better job of healing her than the hospital does."

"Kids are kids, Tsunade," Jiraiya said, and he sounded serious now. "I don't like what you're accusing the village of."

"I'm not accusing the village of anything," Tsunade said. "I know what the village has done. They've put her in a building in the red-light district with no defences, no seals masking her chakra, nothing. Everyone knew where she lived. The windows were smashed in. People moved out once the old man that owned it got his neck cut for supporting her."

"That's not my fault." he said immediately.

Tsunade scoffed, ripping off a piece of the sweet bun and putting it in her mouth. She didn't want to betray the brat's secrets, tell him everything, but she was _angry_ at him. Kids will be kids. _I'll show you kids will be kids_ , "No," she agreed. "It's not your fault. It's not your fault she knew nothing of her heritage till I came along. S'not your fault she's the same weight and height as an eight year old - a whole two years below where she should be, even though her parents? They _towered_ over most of the Shinobi forces. It's not your fault that she nearly died when a chuunin went rogue. It's not your fault, Jiraiya. It's not. But I know damn well Kushina is haunting me, and I know damn well she's haunting you too for failing _their_ little girl."

"That's not fair-" he said, and Tsunade was too enraged to even let him speak, now, because _denying_ his neglect? That was a low-blow.

"You're her godfather," she snapped. "I'm nothing to that little girl, I'm barely even a blood relative. I'm not her godmother. Her godmother got cut through in the Uchiha massacre - not that Naruto even knew that _she_ existed. You can say and say it's not your fault, you didn't know, you couldn't have known - but the fact remains that we have _all_ failed Minato, we have _all_ failed Kushina, and I can't _live_ with the weight of carrying _your_ failings on my shoulders when I have my own burden to carry."

"Hime..." he tried again, reaching out to touch her arm.

Tsunade grabbed his hand and _crushed_ , the sickening _snapcrunchpop_ of his bones like a melody to her ears. With a snarl she _twisted_ , his arm doing a sickening _craaaaack_ as she attempted to bend his elbow inwards, pop his arm where he sat trying to make her _feel better_ when Naruto could have ended up _one of the girls_ in the red-light district, could have been a _comfort girl_ for _Jiraiya_ , the _perverted teme_ , and maybe it wasn't for Naruto, now, her anger for _herself_ because yes, Jiraiya was the _worst_ at sexualising her body even now -

But she was worst for it, keeping up the illusion of her in her prime, because she was so dehumanised in spirit that she couldn't _stand_ what she looked like even though it **shouldn't matter** because she was the Slug Sannin, trained in Uzumaki seals, and single-handedly revolutionised the shinobi medical industry by going further than anyone had before as a **woman**.

But she couldn't stand what she saw in the mirror, because she didn't have Dan's child with her, didn't meet the expectations of her gender prescribed to her long before she was born. "You _lied_ ," she hissed through gritted teeth. "She wasn't _safe_. Hiruzen was worried about her getting taken to the _Seduction Corps,_ was worried about _Danzo_ while you were off fucking barely-legal whores and shirking your responsibilities as a godfather."

"I'll do better," he insisted, gritting his own teeth from the pain. His hand had gone white from the pain. "I can change, Tsunade-hime. That's why I'm here. I'm changing."

Tsunade stared at him for what felt like a minute, still gripping his elbow with all of the strength she could muster. "I believe you," she whispered finally, hand glowing green as she fixed what she'd done. "By _god_ , I believe you."

The rest of the cinnamon bun went down easier, the sweetness a sharp contrast to the metallic tang of guilt in her mouth. 

"Hiruzen sent me away," Jiraiya said some time later, ordering another pot of tea and more of the sweet buns. "Said she outgrew the Orphanage. Found out when she was seven that she'd left the Orphanage aged three. But I didn't _think_ , princess, I didn't. I thought she was some kind of genius, especially given her parents..."

"She struggles to read," Tsunade said again, taking a long pull of tea and swilling it around her mouth, the sweetness getting swilled away by the fresh tea. "But she learns best through anecdotes. Give her a real-life application to something and she flies through it. She uses the Shadow Clone technique to aid her learning. She sets forty on reading, forty on application, and forty on the theory. She gets headaches after. She's grumpy in the mornings and her favourite food is ramen, but she needs to eat a lot of fish and vegetables to correct her growth issues. She's on special pills for nutrition. I'll give you a year's supply when you leave with her."

"You love her," he said, and she wanted to _snarl_ **yes** _I love her,_ but it wasn't an attack, no matter how hard she purged herself of such notions of love. 

"She's mine," she said. "Mine that I never had. Same as Shizune."

"I understand," he said, but _did he_?

"Do you?" she retorted. "I mean it, Jiraiya. She's _mine_. And when she realises how corrupt that village is... She'll be mine again, and she'll never see those people again."

"You can't," he said, and wisely kept his hands to himself.

"Try and stop me," she said, fists clenching once more. Her amber eyes were lit with a fire he'd never seen before. "The old man knew what he was doing when he gave her to me. Knew exactly how to _gut_ me."

"He wants you in the village," he said, and finally he was getting it. "He wants to keep you with her."

"Trap me," she said, shaking her head. "And he's done it, you know? I would stay for the girl. So would Shizune. So you make this trip last as long as humanly possible, because when she returns... So do I."

* * *

She was still terrible at saying goodbyes. Gaara was staring at her impassively, and Naruto kept scrambling for things to say - but he just wasn't talking back! "So it turns out I have this weird ability to make seals," she said, searching for something to say. "And one day I'm gonna fix your demon seal for you, 'ttebayo."

It served her right for trying to look nice for once. Gaara didn't _mean to do it_ , and she argued that point with Tsunade enough to make her mentor back off, even for a little while. His seal was wrong, faulty, leaking poisonous thoughts that served _no_ purpose -

Except they did, because the purpose of the jinchuuriki was war, was a war machine under someone's control - but Gaara bucked the trend like they all did, and operated at the whims of his Tailed Beast instead of living for himself, and that hurt more than words could say.

"Okay," he said finally, inclining his head. "I wish... There was an easier way to contact you. I think..."

"There might be!" she said, a seal flashing before her very eyes. It was long, loopy and jagged, a lovely dichotomy. She didn't know what it did, but it had never failed her before. She removed a brush from her pouch and bit her lip, blood spilling up from the wound.

Gaara watched, transfixed at the red blood. "I've never bled before," he said in a mournful tone - Naruto had gotten quite the expert at differentiating between his gloomy tones, especially when he was helping her scrub thick red blood and viscera from her hair. "The sand stops me."

"Sorry to hear that," she said in the same way she replied whenever he was a little bit odd: perturbed, but nevertheless accepting of the quirks. "The Kyuubi heals me quick, so it doesn't last long." With a long, languid stroke of the brush she collected the good amount of blood she'd spilt, taking Gaara's hand and tracking the seal onto the palm of his hand. The blood glowed faintly with the chakra she was pouring into it, a lovely blue hue with a sheen of rainbow, a multi-coloured array she'd never seen before.

"The sand... Hasn't stopped you," Gaara murmured, watching as the red bloomed on his palm. The design didn't look like any seal he'd seen before, but he trusted his fellow jinchuuriki. She was the only other one to empathise with him, so she was now his to protect and - and cherish, he supposed, but that was what lovers did. Did Temari cherish Kankuro? Cherish meant to protect and care lovingly. He cherished Naruto. Loved Naruto. Naruto must be his lover. "Why doesn't it stop you?"

Naruto repeated the seal on her own palm and clasped them together. The seals shone brightly, even brighter than the sun beating down on them, and then dulled, a weird sensation overtaking his chakra points before they settled. "What does it do?" he asked once it had settled, clenching and unclenching his palm. The seal didn't fade into his skin; it was a strange blue stain, and there was a rhythmic pulsing along each gentle swirl and point. It felt warm, pulsing like a heartbeat. 

"I don't know," she whispered back, smiling faintly. "But I... I think I can _feel_ you, Gaara."

"And is that normal for seals?" he asked, puzzled now. "I don't recall that from the Academy..."

"Neither do I, but it feels right," she said, shrugging it off with the carelessness of youth. And Gaara, innocent as he was, decided to join her in dismissing it. "Now, I did come to say goodbye. I'm going to miss you, Gaara-kun."

Gaara didn't say it back, but there was something in his expression that let her know he felt the same. "When?"

"Now," she said. "I'm late, actually, but I didn't know how to... Say it. I think you're my best friend, Gaara!"

"Thank you," Gaara said, not sure what else to say. 

Naruto smiled, dragging him with her as she went to the gates to leave Suna. "Thank you for having me, Gaara," she babbled as they went. "I know you didn't want to be friends, but I'm grateful!"

"You're my best friend too, Naruto," Gaara said awkwardly, almost too quiet for Naruto to hear.

But she did.

She ducked her head, cheeks flaming scarlet. She could see Tsunade in the distance, but...

She turned, and pressed a very chaste kiss to the corner of Gaara's mouth. "I'm going to miss you," she repeated gently. "Don't let the bastards grind you down, Gaara-kun. Show them how brilliant you are, how funny you are, and... And grow strong."

Was Gaara her boyfriend?

No - no, men were the one true enemy if she asked her feminist mentor - but Gaara was different, was vulnerable -- _but I am not a crutch for his mental health and wellbeing_ , Naruto decided, and thus two thoughts were reached in that moment:

 _Naruto is my lover;_ and --

_I cannot set myself on fire to keep others warm - that's my new nindo!_


	8. Never Such Innocence Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Major character death?
> 
> Warning: Violence in this chapter. Some gore.

"So," Jiraiya said, feeling almost as awkward as he probably looked walking along with a tiny human child. "You're Naruto."

"Am I?" she asked with a sarcastic surprise, raising her eyebrows. "Nobody told me!"

"Sarcasm, right," Jiraiya laughed, and Naruto wanted to smirk. He was being so _weird_. "So-"

"When do I return to Tsunade?" she asked flatly. "Cut the bullshit. None of that cutesy bollocks, because we both know you don't want me here and Tsunade _does_ , so..."

"You don't," he said, and her snarl was frightening. Where was the cute little girl? Where had she gone? "You really were dragged up at the red-light district, huh," he said, tone as flat and uncaring as hers. "Kushina would be rolling in her grave looking at you now."

That got some real emotion from her. She punched him in the solar plexus.

He gagged around a sudden influx of saliva, his tenketsu _closing_ from the sheer force of the hit, and his sandals skidding in the sand as he went skidding twenty foot back. "Don't say her name," she snarled at him, eyes turning red, whiskers thickening into six stripes of black on her cherubic face. "Don't say her _fucking_ name!"

Jiraiya raised his hands in surrender, but the child snapped forward with an unexpected burst of speed and feinted a shot at his face, his hands moving to protect his money-maker - she span mid-air and managed to nail a shot on his _other_ money-maker. The bark of pain that left his mouth was satisfying for her.

For Jiraiya, the pain would have made a lesser man curl up and die, he was sure.

It could have been a worse introduction.

* * *

The first time Naruto _smiled_ with him was when he remembered her eleventh birthday. He didn't mean one of those toothy, open-mouthed grins, nor the tight-lipped smile she reserved for the ladies he brought back. No, it was the type of smile that made his gut tight inside, a smile that said _I am happy_ , a smile that said _Is this for me?_

He had remembered her sixth birthday too, leaving a toad-shaped purse with the Old Man. She still carried it, but he didn't think she knew it was him who gifted it to her.

* * *

The next gift he bought her was soon after; a stack of chakra paper.

When she discovered she possessed _both_ of her parents' elements ( _water_ for her mama and _wind_ from her dad), he got another one of those pure, fleeting smiles, and thought _I'm getting through to her._

* * *

She bought him a gift, this time.

Her distrust of men was still a problem, but he was getting there. So much so she'd bought him ivory-lined paper to write a special version of his Icha Icha books on _just_ for his number one fan.

* * *

"The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi," she murmured. Jiraiya was feigning sleep, had left the book on her bedside table as another gift. He would help her learn love. He would! " _Follow Naruto's journey to break the curse of..._ " She paused. "Sounds dull."

"Your dad named you after that book," Jiraiya said once she'd put it down in the morning, having read it cover-to-cover instead of sleeping. "Your mum wasn't keen - said it was a bit contrived and a bit lengthy. She always wanted a fight, your mother. Always. Just like you."

Another smile, this one as blinding as the last and just as fleeting.

"They'd be proud to have you as their daughter, Naruto," he said in a moment of quiet contemplation. "I'm sorry the village failed you."

* * *

It took the Iwa nin to get her to crack. He knew something was amiss, something wasn't right, but he wanted her to notice, too.

She didn't.

He blamed Tsunade for being too soft on her.

He had a lead on Akatsuki, so with a scrawled note and a _don't wait up_ he'd left his student in the hotel room, wondering if he'd come back to a dead goddaughter. But if he didn't go... He'd still have a dead goddaughter.

"Okay, Ero-sennin," Naruto called back, pushing her long hair behind her ear. 

_If internal organs are sliced open in combat, the combat medic-nin must enter the wound and heal internally. Healing externally does not solve what you cannot see._

_For example: A comrade has been skewered through in battle, his intestines now leaking faecal matter into his body and his bloodstream._

_The medic-nin heals the surface wound, unaware of his intestines seeping this matter into his body. The sepsis kills him before the battle does._

_Or - the medic-nin heals the internal organs first, quickly realising that this injury was more serious than they'd first thought. They heal the internal damage and then the surface damage. The shinobi goes back to battle and is victorious because his teammate was more thorough in her approach to his care._

"Her approach," Naruto murmured, using a pencil to cross out _~~her~~_ and replace it with ' _them_ '. "And of course the injured party is male." 

Thirty minutes later, she was too hungry to even contemplate reading anything more. Naruto shrugged on an oversized jacket, slipped a few spools of wire up her sleeve and pocketed a small brush barely the size of her thumb. It took her ten minutes to realise that Jiraiya had taken their money, and _now_ what did she do? "Gonna' have to hunt," she sighed, tying her hair up into a high ponytail, her Strength of One Hundred seal glowing an eerie blue in the dark of the night from the recent meditation session she'd spent pouring chakra into it. 

She left through the window, putting the hood up on her jacket as she walked down the beaten civilian path. All she could do was think when Jiraiya left; she thought about the three girls not given any choice in what they were to become, thought of what she was to become, thought of what Tsunade and Shizune were doing without her... So entrenched in her thoughts as she was, she didn't notice the figure creeping about ten paces behind until she was at the riverside, sandals kicked off and trousers rolled up to her knees.

"Here, fishy, fishy, fishy," she cooed, still as possible - and then pounced, catching a fish as it tried to swim through the arch her legs left. "Gotcha!" she cried, and then she smelt them.

Gunpowder, unwashed sweat, and the underlying not-quite-smell of shinobi soap, designed to be so scentless it had its own absence of scent. 

And then the man was there, eyes frenzied, holding a katana in his right hand. His other hand was missing, a snarled stump of flesh where it once had been. The skin was gnarled inwards as though his hand had been _twisted_ off, slowly and carefully until it popped off like putty. "Daughter of the Yellow Flash," he said, a touch dramatically. "This... Is your death!"

"Is it?" she asked drily, the fish still squirming valiantly in her hands. His headband had a thick line through the symbol for Iwagakure, so she knew it wasn't an assigned hit; rather, a rogue-nin determined to get his revenge. "Fishy? This... Is your death!" she cried back, plunging the fish back into the water the moment the man pounced to attack.

 _Men are violence and brute force_ , she thought, thinking of Tsunade's drunken rambles and Jiraiya's lecherous midnight conquests. _He's angry, so he can't be too difficult to beat._

The katana was sharp, sharp enough to hack the tip of her hood off as she ducked. She brought a hand round in a flurry of movement, spinning on the ball of her feet despite the sluggishness of the water, a chakra scalpel glowing blue on her hand - and suddenly the ground was. Swallowing. Her. Feet.

Her feet got swallowed up before she had enough sense to channel chakra to them, by which point the Iwa nin had a tight hold of her throat, his single hand crushing it like he would crush a tiny bird.

Her throat tried to work around his fierce grip. "Scum," he hissed, plunging the child's head underwater and holding, fingers pressing tight for her pulse.

Holding. The child tried to swallow, her throat failing to contract beneath the sheer strength of his hand.

Holding. 

\- - - - - 

\- - - - -

\- - - - 

\- - - -

\-----

\----

\--

\- -

\- - -

-

...

.

No pulse.

Up.

The child was still, chest unmoving, eyes red and bloodshot.

He was sure her eyes had been blue.

And yet here they were, gleaming red.

And the diamond on her forehead... Why was it glowing---?

_**SUCH ARROGANCE FROM A TINY HUMAN.** _

_What?_

**_ARROGANCE IS WEAKNESS. IT IS IGNORANCE. IGNORANCE IS NOT STRENGTH._ **

_I'm dying. I'm dying and I'm hallucinating._

**_YOU DIE WHEN I AM READY TO RETURN TO YOUR MORTAL REALM. WHEN I. AM. WHOLE._**

_What?_

_**STRENGTH OF ONE HUNDRED: RELEASE.** _

_What...?_

Her pulse restarted, a staccato rhythm, and the Iwa nin, in his surprise and pure, unadulterated fear, for she had been _dead_ , he knew this, released his grip slightly. The child took a breath, and then.

His life-blood painted her vision red, her body imbued with a roaring strength that was both hers and _not_ hers; her hand, coated in her chakra scalpel, was her weapon of choice as she slit through skin, flesh, and then the thick cartilage of his throat.

The rage, the fear was too much, and Naruto kept pressing, her hand hacking through his windpipe until she felt the grinding of bone against her fingers. If she twitched her fingers just _so_ she could feel the joints in his spine.

She gripped his head and twisted, anger making her delirious as she separated his head from his body, spine breaking as she kept pulling his head until.

_Release._

A crack, and then a sickening thump of the body hitting the floor.

His head was even more grotesque as she held it, two lumps like horns protruding from his bald head. His blood made her fingers and her throat desperate for water - or was that the come-down from the near-death experience?

"Lucky you weren't a medic," she croaked, going to the river bank and scooping some water into her mouth. "Otherwise I coulda' died." 

The water was red in her hands. She began to scrub her hands clean, but the blood was all over her, coating her cheeks, her neck, her chest. 

Her hands were clean.

Except they weren't, and she began to scrub again, anxiety welling up in her gut. This was different to Mizuki, different to gutting fish and then gently nudging their guts back inside them - this was _murder_ , it was _survival_ , and where was her mentor? Where had he gone? Tsunade wouldn't have left her...

"Kid," and there he was, his geta sandals clicking as he pawed through the forest to get to the riverside. "Naruto!"

"Here," she croaked, and oh, she couldn't raise her voice. She held her red _red_ red hand up to her throat, running a small diagnostics scan. _Crushed larynx_ , it hummed back. The Kyuubi was already healing her, of course, but... She was so close to death that it didn't _matter_ that he was healing her. 

"Naruto," he said, and _yes_ , that was a corpse on the floor, beheaded through sheer anxiety and brute force. Naruto turned her face towards him, the soft shine of the pale moon doing nothing for the crimson coating her face. 

Jiraiya could see that she had activated the Strength of One Hundred seal for it curled over her cheeks, dipping below her throat to curl across her budding chest. "Naruto," he said again, and she _snarled_ , a vicious and broken thing.

"Shit," he said, dropping to his knees beside the body and starting to loot. "Genji the Barbarian was following you. Well, well-dispatched kid, we can get his bounty now."

Naruto faltered. "Kill-- me," she croaked out, her hand still floating at her throat. "He tried to kill me."

"I didn't get a word of that," he sighed, sitting back on his heels as he watched her. She looked traumatised. "Do you -- ah, fuck it." He stood, crept towards her like she was a scared animal, and then -

He smelt of tar, of cigarette smoke and something sweeter, perhaps a ladies perfume. His chest was warm and he was so much _bigger_ than Tsunade. She couldn't help but nuzzle into the warmth of his hug, starting to hiccup and then - as all children do, she started to cry. Silently and jerkily she cried, gripping him back tightly, nails digging into his back. "Kid," he whispered. "I'm sorry I failed you, kid. So sorry. They said you were safe there, said... It doesn't matter what they said. I didn't _check_... I'm so sorry." 

* * *

The morning after was somber. They packed their belongings in silence, and then as they left the hotel - Naruto slipped her small hand into his and _squeezed_. "It's okay," she said, voice still no higher than a croak but more distinguishable - if slightly masculine, not that he would ever tell her that. "I forgive you."

* * *

Jiraiya had finally agreed to take her to Uzushio with one rule: don’t tell Tsunade until they had already been, lest she try to beat Jiraiya within an inch of his life. They were at the Land of Rivers for no discernible reason, at least from Naruto’s perspective. When she’d asked Jiraiya why they were there, he said he was investigating the people trying to take the demon from her belly.

Logically, it didn’t make sense that she was _there_ where the _evil people_ were, but he didn’t listen to such reasoning. “Pack up, brat,” he said cheerfully, ruffling her long hair. “We’ll go to that curry shop you like before we go and have a little chat about the future of your training. I might go visit…” Jiraiya started giggling and wandered out of the room, leaving Naruto to pack up all of their belongings _as usual_.

She grumbled to herself as she packed, refusing to use clones for such a menial task. She didn’t want to give herself a headache just because she was too lazy to tidy properly. From what Jiraiya had inferred, it would take them a while to reach Whirlpool because of the high tides – it would be the most intense training exercise he’d done yet if he tried to make her pass, and he had said that he was unsure he would make it through. She assumed that meant they would camp in the Land of Fire forests before they made the journey. Once the bags were packed, she rolled up her sleeve and powered a minute amount of chakra to one of her seals. It bloomed like a flower on her skin, the blood-red seal practically winking at her as she pushed their luggage into the seal.

It tugged a little, but wasn’t uncomfortable. If she had to explain it, her blood and body was the conduit to the time-space ‘bubble’ she had created for storage purposes. Jiraiya found such a seal awe-inspiring but was struggling to replicate it – all she had to do was _will_ the seal to get the item they wanted, and it didn’t quite make sense that she could fit all of their camping gear into a seal that was roughly the size of her fist. Even the better sealing scrolls had size dimensions constraining their effectiveness, but her arm seal swallowed _everything_. Trying to figure out her seals meant understanding the several ‘control’ matrices in place, as well as the various pillars she had. Her seal was extravagant, circles looping together with jagged spikes of kanji concealed by the spirals, and thus the replicability was difficult as Jiraiya couldn't quite _read_ it.

She glanced around the room and hummed, leaving the hotel to find the little curry shop she liked. The sheer volume of spice and fire was astounding. When she entered the restaurant, she did her immediate visual checks: weapons catalogued, exits mapped, customers assessed. However, she was only young, and poor with genjutsu, something that Jiraiya wasn't too bothered about 'fixing' just yet.

She glossed over the young, dark-haired man in the corner of the store, dressed in all black clothing. According to her assessments, he wasn’t there. Red eyes watched the young blonde as she went to a booth. From his prior experience of Konoha, he knew this was the young jinchuuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox demon: Uzumaki Naruto, daughter of Uzumaki Kushina. He remembered baby-sitting the girl when she was young, so bright and bubbly with two milk-teeth that flashed into a grin whenever he was in the room. It seemed like she had lost her skill for genjutsu since being a baby, but he suspected that was neglect from the Academy.

 _She is only Sasuke’s age and yet she has graduated earlier than him_ , he thought, narrowing his eyes at the seal on her forehead. Her chakra was tamed compared to the… Cyclone it was as a child, though he knew Tsunade’s tutelage had a role to play there. He stood, moving over to her booth and dropping the genjutsu.

Naruto stiffened immediately. _Good_ , he thought, sliding across from her. The _Akatsuki_ ring glinted on his finger. “Uzumaki Naruto,” he said calmly, releasing the flow of chakra from his eyes and revealing their normal black hue.

Naruto stared back with no small amount of horror. He had hidden from her, the emotion-and-chakra-sensing Uzumaki! Whoever this man was… He was dangerous. “I don’t want any trouble,” she said, masking her emotions just as quickly as they came. “Despite my appearance, I’m only visiting the best restaurant in the Land of Rivers.”

Itachi smirked, tilting his head as he re-assessed her. She was preparing to fight. He could _hear_ her fingers moving… Scratching, almost? And suddenly seals on her arms appeared, some black, some deep red, some green like vines.

And Uzumaki Naruto disappeared.

Itachi activated his _Sharingan_ immediately. There was no cloud of smoke. It was like a flicker; one moment she was there, the next she was gone. He turned his head, trying to trace her chakra signature… Uzumaki Naruto had disappeared. From _him_. His smirk grew larger, and he disappeared in a burst of crows.

Outside of the curry shop, Naruto had her hand to her mouth, her heart fluttering like a hummingbird in her chest. She didn’t know the seal she’d used. No – she did, she did, it was on one of those three-pronged kunai Jiraiya-sensei kept with him. What was it? Her father’s technique? But that didn’t make sense – she didn’t have a grounding seal, somewhere to transport to. She just… _blinked,_ her hands moving seemingly of their own accord, and then she was outside of the shop.

One thing was for sure, though – she had just survived an encounter with an S-ranked ninja, possibly one of the _Akatsuki_ themselves from that ring on his finger. Why did she get the impression she knew him? Naruto shifted and leapt into the trees surrounding the restaurant. They weren’t as thick nor as dense as they were in Konoha, providing inadequate camouflage, but the panic was still running through her veins like ice.

Jiraiya was nowhere to be found, not even at the bathhouses he frequented under the guise of ‘research’. She had to be clever now, acknowledge the potential threat and work around it. She took a deep breath, spreading her chakra around her like a fan, poking and probing to try and find Jiraiya. _There_.

Fighting two S-class nins… And if she was correct, _struggling_.

Naruto had two choices: flee, which was Jiraiya’s instruction, or get out there and fight – Tsunade’s instruction. She released her gravity seals and threw her hair up in a ponytail, assessing her weapon availability. She was no good with a sword, but… She did have her father’s three-pronged kunai. And Jiraiya had one!

She raised her left palm and slowly scrawled the same seal she made earlier, preparing herself to react to whatever threat there was.

_Boom._

She appeared in front of Jiraiya, her arms already reaching to block a massive bandaged sword. There was an immediate sense of fatigue as she held it back from cleaving her in two. It was _eating her chakra_! She grit her teeth, eyes flaring red as she stared back at the owner of the sword. “Kisame,” she spat out. She knew this person from the Bingo Book. His sword took chakra like it was a feast. She had to rely on taijutsu to beat him, which was Jiraiya’s specialty.

“Gaki!” Jiraiya cried out, voice tinged… With relief? Naruto didn’t falter, bending practically in half as she dropped the sword and danced away from the swipe that would have easily eaten most of the Kyuubi-induced chakra running through her system. “Naruto, run!”

“Never,” Naruto shouted back at her sensei, falling back in line with him. She could… See. Feel. Everything seemed rich and vibrant. She knew the other S-ranked shinobi was still there, but he wasn’t engaging in the battle, content to watch and learn about her. She would give him a show.

“You should, yano,” Kisame said with a smirk, appearing behind her and cutting her in two.

 _Poof_. He grinned even more, looking around for the quick-thinking kid. She was the target. He was a bit pissed that Itachi was hanging back, but he was sure his partner had a plan. Maybe. Or maybe he was right and the guy really was a fucking pri-

 _Bang_. The _jinchuuriki_ landed an upperhook right to his jaw, her damned sensei following it up with a sharp boot to his spine. Kisame flew through the air like a ragdoll. If he had to compare their strength, he would say the fucking jinchuuriki was the same strength as her fucking sensei the fucking _Sannin_. “Woo!” Kisame yelled, roaring with laughter as his jaw, very nearly unhinged from the punch, snapped into place again. “What a fucking rush.” His eyes glinted at the girl and the dance continued.

The girl and the toad-man worked with a frightening level of teamwork, with the old guy defending her from his more damaging moves. Neither of them had resorted to ninjutsu yet, which was slowly wearing him down. Plus, his… Fingers weren’t responding correctly, his grip slowly slackening on his sword until it hung limply from his grip. “What have you done?” he asked, trying to flex his right hand into his fist. His left hand twitched into a fist.

The Kyuubi brat grinned at him and moved again, appearing in front of him. He attempted to hit her but she disappeared in a flash of yellow. With a loud cry, the Kyuubi brat _poked_ him in the spine, and his legs crumbled beneath him. He couldn’t move them. He was paralysed in front of two enemies… And Itachi did fucking nothing. He was gonna’ fucking _drown_ the bastard.

“Naruto,” Jiraiya called, the genin bouncing back to her sensei with a grin. Jiraiya smiled back and the two fled, leaving the shark-man with his ever-watching teammate. “That was ridiculous!” Jiraiya admonished her as they ran, a yellow streak next to a white one.

“New technique!” Naruto laughed, the rush of battle still pounding in her veins. “I – well, it was in a scroll of theoretical techniques in iryo-jutsu that Shizune gave me as a parting gift, I just never thought it would _work_!”

“So you – you what? Damaged his nerves?” Jiraiya asked in interest, still marvelling at the fact that Minato’s child managed to handle an S-ranked ninja _partly_ by herself. However, he had the dawning realisation that this now meant Akatsuki knew _some_ of Naruto’s abilities: chakra-enhanced strength, a bastardised form of his taijutsu style, and something founded in theory that apparently had the practical application of subduing the enemy through nerve damage. If he recalled correctly, Orochimaru had been working on a similar experiment, but Tsunade was never interested in trying such a damning thing. While she was a frontline fighter, she relied on her immense strength moreso than iryo-ninjutsu.

Unless she'd changed in the many years they'd spent apart - and well, women were _so_ changeable!

“Yep,” Naruto panted, her senses telling her that for now they were probably safe – the shark dude and his friend hadn’t moved. However, they still had to get to Whirlpool. “Um, basically it like… rewires the nerves temporarily – he probably would have gotten used to the change if we carried on engaging him. Why did we leave?”

Jiraiya slowed to a stop, kneeling down in front of Naruto so they were eye to eye. “Because, Naruto, they were two members of _Akatsuki_ ,” he said solemnly, making Naruto’s eyes widen with mock surprise, her lips mouthing _'Really?' I didn't even notice--_. “Oh, bugger off, brat. They’re after… You know.” He placed one big hand against her gut. “I knew there was no way of keeping you out of the battle, but you did _well_ , gaki. So well. You fight like your mother.” His other hand moved to her face, wiping away the beginnings of a smile from his compliment. “C’mon. Let’s get to Whirlpool as fast as we can.”

And so began their journey to the lost village of Uzushiogakure.


	9. Uzushio

It took several days to pass through the Land of Fire with Jiraiya’s ‘research’ and his attempts at teaching her about chakra manipulation. For some reason, he wanted her to spin chakra in a rubber ball, which was infinitely more difficult than it seemed without some other form of conduit to make the chakra rotate in the opposite direction. He also said she wasn’t allowed to use shadow clones to do it, deeming it ‘cheating’. However… A shadow clone would be able to stabilise the spin, which was something she simply couldn’t do alone. 

“Are we there yet?” Naruto asked on their fifth day, scenting out the ocean. They were nearing Wave, which would soon mean they had to tackle the whirlpools.

“Yes, you damned brat!” Jiraiya snapped, pointing through the thick trees to reveal a wide expanse of water. Naruto rushed forward and gasped, eyes wide as she drank in the sight of great, rolling tides, the blue water lapping the cliff-face they were perched right at the edge of. “From what I recall of the attack on Uzushio, the reigning clan-head, before his death, activated illusion seals. Only an Uzumaki with no intent to harm can get through – slightly redundant given there’s only you retaining the Uzumaki name in the Land of Fire, which is where those that survived fled to.” He paused, expression solemn as he placed one hand on her shoulder in support. “I’m not sure I can make the journey in with you, Naruto. There will be bodies – with luck, they will have been bleached by the sun, and picked clean by beasts.”

Naruto closed her eyes and said a small prayer to Kami for the spirits she would find. Part of her didn’t want to go, but a larger, more mature part of her knew that she had to make this journey. She owed it to her mother, to Uzumaki Mito and to Senju Tsunade. She owed it to every relation she could have had growing up, and she owed it to the spiral sewn into the Konoha chuunin- and jounin- uniforms. “How are we getting there?” she asked after her prayer, calmer than she had ever been in her life.

“Water-walking. We could create a boat, but… There is an unsavoury situation happening in Wave right now, and we’d run the risk of encountering thugs. After the excitement of the past few days, I think we’re better without it!” Jiraiya chuckled a deep belly laugh, settling down on the cliff edge. “But first, we eat, we drink, and we discuss what you gain from this trip. And show me your progress with the rubber ball.”

Naruto sat beside him, kicking her legs against the white rock. She unsealed their food scroll and unravelled it before giving it to her sensei. “I haven’t got far at all,” she sighed, plucking the ball from her arm seal and attempting to spin chakra through it. She could feel the threads of chakra working together, twisting and unwinding into nothing. it was there, on the cusp of being - _sharp_ , almost, the chakra itself thin as she tried to swirl it, and yet as sharp as steel.

It was frustrating. It felt like that first _reach_ for her chakra, the gaping nothingness keeping her in suspension until she _yanked_ and _pulled_ it back, and then she was flooded with a cold, sharp _wave_ of power.

She wanted to be good at this _now_. 

“I can’t hold it. It’s not stable, but… I know seals won’t keep it in place, inked or other ones. I need another hand to stabilise it… I suppose I could rotate my hands around the ball but it still wouldn’t work.” she said, scowling at the damned thing.

She wanted to throw it over the damn cliff!

“You’re overthinking it,” Jiraiya observed. It had taken her several days. While the girl was a quick learner, she was struggling astronomically with it, and he believed she fell into the same trap she did when talking to him; over-analysing, over-thinking, and second-guessing. “And I think you’re trying to use wind chakra to do it… An interesting manipulation, but not what you need to do, especially when we haven't worked on elemental manipulation yet. Think, Naruto. Use your normal chakra and think.” He blamed the exposure to the outside for her attempts at elemental manipulation. Too much air charging up her affinity and strengthening her connection to the wind... - He was possibly talking out of his backside. It was a natural progression for most, to move to elemental manipulation when their confidence and chakra control grew.

Naruto furrowed her brow, focusing solely on her swell of chakra, moulding it into one spinning vortex. _A whirlpool_ , she mused, moving her left hand over the ball and filling the gaps with chakra spinning the alternate way. The ball popped.

Jiraiya smirked to himself and gave her another ball. “Again,” he coaxed her. “It took Minato a while to get this far, Naruto. Kick his ass.”

Naruto laughed and tried again, but the chakra fizzled out like a light. Her hands were coated with burns, the skin thick, white and bubbling with the strain of the chakra manipulation. “Maybe later,” she conceded, wincing as the Kyuubi worked on healing her. She got the feeling projecting healing chakra to her hands would do more damage than good. “I think I’ve blocked the tenketsu in my hands.”

Jiraiya laughed. They ate, they drank, and then Jiraiya pushed himself off the cliff edge and down into the water below. Naruto grumbled but followed, being careful to channel the right amount of chakra to her feet so that she didn’t get soaked through to the bone by the waves.

They started the dash to Uzushio, encountering few problems until… The water started getting _wobbly_. Naruto was having problems regulating the flow of chakra. Jiraiya seemed to be having a similar problem, but he wasn’t getting sucked in like she was. With a loud cry, Naruto was dragged under the water and into a swirling vortex of gushing water.

Her mind turned to panic straight away.

She could _feel_ his hand at her throat, her gullet working overtime to swallow saliva, and he just. Kept. Crushing.

She flailed, kicking her legs this way and that, his weird horn-like protrusions an invasive thought. In her mind's eye she could see it: the glow of the beautiful moon, covered in a sheen of glittering blue, the stars winking at her from the black sky.

She thought of the balls of gas, some scientific breakthrough by gentlemen far smarter than her, and wondered if her mama turned into a ball of gas, too. Maybe her mama was looking out for her then.

And in her head: _**I AM THE ONE WHO LOOKED OUT FOR YOU.**_

She could smell burning.

But that didn't make sense, she couldn't think -- she couldn't smell anything for she was drowning, gulping in thick bouts of salt water.

And then something shifted, changed.

Her senses screamed at her to be still, a seal floating in the front of her mind, and then there was a pinching sensation like she was being squeezed through a straw. She wrote the seal as quickly as she could on her palm despite a lack of ink or blood, her palm glowing a deep shade of violet in response.

And then she was chucked onto the shore with a small army of redheads gawping at her.

She doubled over, hacking up all of the water she had ingested, wide blue eyes staring at pink sand. The ocean was a gentle roar in her ears, lapping at her feet like a cat would lap at milk. She got the very disgruntling impression that the ocean was laughing at her. She moved two fingers to her mouth, to the back of her throat, and salt water ejected itself from her stomach with ferocity, her vomit staining the sands a deeper shade of pink. 

She hadn't seen pink sand before.

“Who are you?” One of the redheads asked as she vomited. She glanced up with her eyes watering and assessed him, flitting over his clothes, his weapons, and his colouring. He was an older man, looking to be Jiraiya’s age, with burgundy hair cut neatly to his chin. His dark skin was marked with scars, with the most startling one splitting the corner of his mouth to reveal more teeth than his lips could cover. He had peculiar amethyst coloured eyes, shape similar to Uzumaki Mito's cat-like eyes. He had a katana lazily aimed at her, but she could see the seals wound along the metal – seals for absorption were the main ones, so she assumed the sword would suck away chakra. He was a threat, but he was far enough away that she could escape if he attacked her.

She dismissed him, gazing at the land surrounding them. The were pink sands with white waves lapping them up, the mountains in the distance covered in a healthy thicket of greenery. There was a meander of the river close to where she'd been thrown, which implied to her that there was a water-route straight up the mountains that carved through the village. The water was so clear, she could see numerous black seals lining the walls of the river, the pink sands held in place by the 'Structure' seals. She could see a fish, a brilliant white thing swimming into the ocean.

She moved her attention to the village, a sign reading 'EDDY TOWN' by a big cast-iron gate. Despite the threatening look to the gate, the village was breathtaking.

The village was... The village was a beautiful shade of a white, but with golds, blues, reds, and oranges adding a brightness to the place. She could see signs of devastation, , but... It was a village reborn, nothing like how her history books described.

And there were people in front of her.

Alive.

The history books neglected to mention that, too. 

Her panic from drowning subsided somewhat, and she pushed it away, compartmentalising as a good ninja should.

“Uzumaki Naruto, ‘ttebayo!” she said, tone very clearly panicked, pushing up with her arms and standing upright. She dropped into a basic taijutsu stance, wielding the three-pronged kunai with the Hiraishin seal on the handle. Where was her usual kunai? Why had she grabbed this one first? She didn't even know how to throw the damn thing! “Who are you?!”

Someone gasped. Naruto glanced at the woman with narrowed eyes. Logically she knew this was… Her clan. Some of the Uzumaki clan must have survived and thrived… Except she could sense that only the man possessed enough chakra to even remotely compare to her. If she had to guess, the others were civilians-turned-police force, or perhaps they were wearing seals to mask their chakra - or perhaps this was an illusion. She channelled chakra through her body, murmured " _Release_ ," but nothing changed.

The man slowly nodded. “Who are your parents?” he asked in a controlled tone. Naruto couldn’t sense any ill-will towards her despite the katana aimed at her, but his tone...

It sounded sad.

“I suppose the only one who matters is Uzumaki Kushina,” Naruto said, relaxing her stance until she was very clearly non-offensive, lowering the blade. “But I’ve been reliably informed I get all of my colouring from my father.”

The man stepped forward, his eyes widening with no small amount of shock. His entire body was tense. “Kushina?” he asked. “You’re certain? You look nothing alike!”

The other people started muttering amongst themselves. She heard a faint mutter of, “Minato- that was the boy Kushina-chan liked, Akane, you remember? The Hokage?” and a murmur of agreement from who she could guess to be Akane.

“Hiroyuki-sama,” the lady said, stepping to his side immediately. “Please, calm yourself. You know you’re in no fit state to get upset. The barriers wouldn’t have let her through if she didn’t possess main branch blood.” Naruto got the impression she wasn’t supposed to hear that. “Your heart…”

“Sod my bloody heart!” the man cried, stepping closer still till the young girl was within arm’s length. “You’re Kushina’s daughter.” He said again, marvelling at her. Naruto shifted and gave him a grumpy frown. He smiled back at her and pulled her into a loose hug. “It’s nice to meet my granddaughter,” he whispered, stroking through the dampened blonde hair. “Well… Great granddaughter, but what’s a generation between friends?”

 _Granddaughter?!_ “What?” Naruto whispered, jerking away from the man. “This isn’t real. None of this – _this can’t be real_.” She closed her eyes, pondering on whether anyone _could_ survive the massacre of Uzushio. Perhaps they could. Her mother did, but her mother was in Konoha at the time.

She was bloody hopeless at genjutsu. She wouldn't even know if it _was_ an illusion.

“Hiroyuki-sama,” the lady implored again. “The poor girl is soaked through to the bone. Come here, Naruto-san,” The lady bowed low at the waist to the young girl. “I’m Uzumaki Fumiko. It’s lovely to meet you, child of Kushina.”

Against her better wishes, Naruto bowed low too. Her neck prickled, her senses on high alert, and she was anxious that somebody would slit her throat. “Forgive me,” Naruto said gently. “But I won’t feel comfortable without my sensei with me. He must be worried sick.”

As she spoke, there was a loud bang above them. Naruto looked up, along with all of the redheads. The sky was lit white and blue, thick adamantine chains further solidifying the defence barrier the remaining survivors had made. Uzumaki Hiroyuki waved his hand and a gap opened up, letting Jiraiya through. Jiraiya plummeted to the ground like a sack of potatoes, but he was immediately on the offensive. He grabbed Naruto and yanked his student’s daughter behind him, hair spiking out in one of his best defences. She was enveloped in his embrace, and she could hear his chakra _singing_ with his panic and his rage. The Seals Master - kept out by a seal. Or was it a bloodline limit?

The tension increased when more redheads, and a few people with black hair, came rushing from seemingly nowhere, all of them with incredibly high chakra levels and… All of them seemingly survivors of the brutality that took place several years ago.

“I'm Uzumaki Hiroyuki,” Hiroyuki said with a smile. “And this is little Jiraiya! You’ve grown ugly and old, boy.” He chortled, pulling his ‘old friend’ into a hug. Emphasis on the old - the Toad Sage, once a trusted ally and informant to the felled second Uzukage, had really let himself go.

“And you’ve not changed a bit,” Jiraiya said, struck dumb by the situation. His eyes were flicking rapidly, his nose working overtime to try and determine whether this was a genjutsu. The last time he had seen Uzumaki Hiroyuki, he had been a young lad of eighteen, and Hiroyuki had whooped him with a sword faster than Jiraiya could blink. “You’re alive? There’s so many of you!”

“And more in the village,” Hiroyuki said enthusiastically. “Everyone – this is Jiraiya of the Sannin, and his esteemed student Uzumaki Naruto!”

 _E_ _steemed student_ , Naruto mouthed to herself, amused. A bold assumption. More like Jiraiya was the student sometimes - didn't even flush after himself.

There was an outcry at Naruto’s name, making the girl flush red. “That’s not possible,” a man spoke, his gaze angry as he looked between their current Uzukage and the two intruders. A few people cried out their agreement. “She doesn’t look like any of us!”

“Isao is right, Uzukage-sama!” someone else yelled. “She’s an imposter – they’re spies!” More dissenting voices rose until there was a cacophony of anger and killing intent, all aimed at the little girl chucked up on their shore and her wayward sensei.

Uzumaki Fumiko scowled deeply at that accusation. She had been impacted deeply by the ravaging of Uzushio, losing her arm and so much more during the attack; to gain more family was all she wanted after the loss of her first child and her husband. Now her arm had partly regenerated, but she had to keep it wrapped in bandages due to the rawness of the muscle and skin she had regained. She would never regain her family. She couldn’t mould chakra through her arm, but she at least had use of her fingers for seal-writing. “She’s Kushina’s daughter, and I think we can all see that!” she roared over the noise, taking Naruto’s arm and raising it high. “Now, child,” Fumiko said with a far gentler smile, wrapping her good arm around the child. Naruto slowly lowered her arm. “Shall we go get you nice and dry?”

“I think she’d like that,” Jiraiya said, trying to assess whether this was one big illusion that even he couldn’t break. Perhaps that battle with Itachi had resulted in this. The Uchiha had been distant, letting his teammate do all the battering… “But we need a very serious discussion as to how there are people still alive in Uzushio, and why you haven’t made contact with Konoha.”

Naruto gulped. That was Jiraiya’s Very Serious Voice that usually meant she’d done something wrong. Hiroyuki became sombre, walking alongside the duo to their partially restored village. The rest of the villagers, ninja and civilians alike, flanked them. Gradually, they disappeared into their homes, but most glanced back.

Naruto was in awe. Fumiko was a quiet companion at her side, the woman’s black eyes fixed on Naruto like the girl was about to run. The village was beautiful. She could see almost everywhere, the buildings long, low and flat, roof tiles whitewashed by the sun. There was a slightly taller building directly opposite the village gates, this building painted a light blue and marked with the Uzumaki clan symbol. The roads were made of sand, with beautiful blooms lining people’s homes like ornaments. In the distance she could sense so many children; so much laughter and joy centred around a larger building. And yet she could feel the change in atmosphere as they walked towards the light blue building; there was so much chakra projecting from this one building. She assumed this was the conduit for the barrier seal surrounding the village. Part of her wondered where the bodies were – was there anything left after the united Hidden Villages attacked? And she had a grandfather. A very old man in the form of a slightly younger man. She had a family in this beautiful village that smelt like hot salt water, the winds flowing through her dampened hair like a child playing with its toys. _Home_ , the wind cooed, _Child is home_!

Her stomach churned at the thought that she had nearly drowned - _again_ \- before she felt the comforting arms of Uzushio - for that's what it must be, the village itself childishly sentient, its chakra tickling hers like child pulling her pigtails, never mind not meeting her... Her family?

She glanced back at Hiroyuki, her brows drawn together in thought. She wondered if he knew anything about her sealing abilities. “Naruto-san?” Fumiko asked gently, making the young girl turn to her. “Where… Where is Kushina-san?”

“Dead,” Naruto said just as gently, almost sympathetic but - not really, because all good kunoichi end up dead, don't they? “There’s something you should know.”

“Yes?” Fumiko asked, gesturing for two people to come closer. Naruto eyed them with interest. Clearly a father and daughter, but she speculated on their relation to her. “Sorry, Naruto-san, but this is Kosuke – Kosuke, this is Uzumaki Naruto, from Konoha. She is Kushina-san’s daughter.”

“It’s true then?” Kosuke asked, expression carefully blank but his chakra tinged with hope. His niece (or second cousin, but who cared about that?). His cousin’s daughter. His cousin, sent to Konoha to contain the Kyuubi instead of acting as Clan Head when his father died in the attacks, even though no seal could withstand the trauma of childbirth. Gesture of goodwill, he was told as a boy. They needed Kushina’s unique chakra to subdue the Bijuu inside of Uzumaki Mito. He was a child then, sent to hide in an underground shrine with many other women and children when the sky came raining down – Kushina was three years older, and _kami_ she never let him forget. “And what of Kushina? And her… Burden?”

“Deceased,” Jiraiya interrupted their conversation, tone gruff as he moved to Naruto’s side. “And the demon sealed away.”

Kosuke and Fumiko understood immediately. Naruto expected them to turn on her, but Kosuke dropped to his knees in front of her, uncaring of the warm sand cushioning his knees. His small daughter, barely six by the looks of her, shifted in confusion as her father bowed his head. “Naruto-san,” the man whispered, tears in his eyes but refusing to let them fall. “I’m so sorry for leaving you alone as your uncle. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I’ll ask for it anyway: please forgive me in failing my duty. I was a child. Kushina was chosen to be the tenant and then a few years later we were attacked. We’ve been recovering and rebuilding, but I was eight. We lost contact with Konoha for our own protection. Nobody could know we were here, but that meant I failed in my duty to protect my cousin and it meant I failed in my duty to protect you.”

Naruto looked to Jiraiya for help, unsure of what to do. This was too much for her to take in. She had _family_ , the one thing she never thought she had. The one thing she wanted. She wondered how her younger self would react; she’d probably give Kosuke a big hug and tell him everything would be okay – that he was a bastard for leaving her but that it was okay. 

But she was a kunoichi, and she understood that being childish wouldn't help her win, here. She was a warrior. “Stand,” she said. “There’s nothing to forgive, Kosuke-oji. Can I call you that? Of course I can,” She grinned at the young girl with her… Uncle – and wasn’t that _weird_ – as the man stood on shaking legs. “Hi! I’m Naruto!”

She could see her mother in the girl, her rounded face resembling a tomato. If this were Konoha, she... She would never be so open, her heart closed off to that village.

But this village?

This village could be home, could be her new start -- and there was only ever one chance to make a good first impression. So she smiled politely, pushed away her anxiety, and swallowed the bile curling at the back of throat as she thought _these people could have saved me._

The little girl puffed up at _finally_ being addressed. “Hiiii!” she squealed, rushing forward to give the newcomer a hug. “Your hair is so nice. It’s really pretty. Nobody has a colour like that around here! Is it fake? No, it can't be fake. Hi! I’m Uzumaki Megumi but you can call me boss!”

Naruto laughed. “Okay, boss,” she agreed softly, making Fumiko titter beside her. “What’re you the boss off?”

“I’m gonna’ be Clan Head!” Megumi boasted, making her father shake his head. “Huh? I’m not?”

“Nuh-uh,” Kosuke laughed. “Not with Naruto-san in the picture. Kushina was the heir, not me. And we’re banking on _that_ old fart dropping down,” He gestured to Hiroyuki. “And he’s gonna’ outlive us all. Where are you going?”

“To the government building, Kosuke,” Hiroyuki’s voice was like a cannon amongst all the emotions, quickly smacking them out of it. “And then Jiraiya and I will be going on a tour. And Naruto-san…” He gazed at the young girl with so much fondness Naruto had to drop her gaze. “Naruto-san is not a prisoner, and is free to roam wherever she likes. You may have an escort, if you wish?”

“Fumiko-san,” Naruto said immediately. “And I would like to see a library. I came here to learn more about my clan, but first and foremost I’m a shinobi and knowledge is power.”

Hiroyuki glanced at Fumiko, the woman pursing her lips but inclining her head. “Permission granted,” he said. “But… Depending on your journey destination, I am… Willing to offer a home to you, Naruto-san. This is your village. And one day, I hope you come to reclaim it.”


	10. Village of the Dead

Hiroyuki warmed his belly with sake, gazing at the Toad Sannin with such an age it was hard for Jiraiya to comprehend. “We’re going to the Hidden Village,” he told the man, the boat rocking along in the river. They had rebuilt the main island, but the Hidden Village itself was decimated – and would remain so for the longest time, as they didn’t have the funds not materials to repair it. They had long since stopped using currency for items: their population was a meagre three hundred, his shinobi refusing to create a baby boom and his civilians more than content to do so. “Naruto-san is the host, then. And… Her father died sealing the beast away?”

Jiraiya nodded, the shock having worn away. Now, as he gazed at this old, vibrant man, he could sense the despair that coated this island. Despite the vibrancy and the life they had experienced, this was a harrowing experience he wasn’t sure they could ever forget. “Naruto has had a bad life,” Jiraiya murmured, sipping his own sake. Sake on a boat; a novel experience and a fantastic excuse for a turning belly. “Kushina loved her so, so much. The beast was torn from her at her weakest point: giving birth to Naruto. She clung on through sheer damn willpower, aiding Minato with the beast with her chains and protecting Naruto at all costs. They even vacated Konoha… But I suspect foul play. I don’t believe the beast loosed itself.” He paused. “Minato sealed the beast into Naruto, taking half of it with him to the belly of the death God. Naruto doesn’t speak about her life before she began training at the Academy, but there was only one restaurant in the entire village that was _kind_ enough to feed her.” He closed his eyes, his soul aching. “I’m her godfather and I did so little – I had to protect her through my spy network. I stopped many assassinations of Konoha and its citizens, but I never considered the threat would be from within. Naruto is gifted with seals unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. She makes them up. She describes it like a flash coming to her, and then she repeats them. Her first attempt was a storage scroll. However, her calligraphy still needs work, and she would benefit from learning _true_ fuuinjutsu from people qualified to understand her unique ability.”

Hiroyuki leant forward as Jiraiya spoke, eyes lit up with interest. “I am not a fool, Jiraiya-san,” he said when Jiraiya finished. “Such teaching wouldn’t be free, even for my precious granddaughter. But Uzushio isn’t ready for the outside world. It isn’t. There is too much to be lost. We are self-sustained, living on fish from our generous sea and vegetables our climate is thankfully good enough to provide. After the attack… There were barely one hundred of us left, and three died before sunset the day after the bloodbath. Over half of the population remaining were children. Those who stayed had to rebuild what they could, and thankfully our population has grown. Fumiko-chan runs the government building, but what use is a government when there is so little to govern?”

“I am _sure_ Konoha would support you as they once had,” Jiraiya said. “We would be honoured to extend that alliance once more. It was… It was our darkest day. Kushina never failed to remind us of that. Well, I say that – she harboured no resentment, but the atrocity left a stain on our history books.” He paused. “I cannot make promises, but I can speak to the Sandaime about our relationship.”

“The issue is, Jiraiya-san,” Hiroyuki said, a spark in his eye that made dread curl around Jiraiya’s gut. “Konoha has, by your own admission, mistreated the Clan Heiress to the Uzumaki clan – not that she knows what being a Clan Heiress entails, which is another failing of the Hokage. I am tempted to declare an emergency and reclaim our heir.”

“You can’t,” Jiraiya said immediately, shaking his head. “Naruto belongs in Konoha. The Nine-Tailed Demon _belongs_ to Konoha, and there would be outrage if you claimed her.”

“ _Reclaimed_ ,” Hiroyuki said with a smirk. “She’s not yours to keep, and the demon in her belly would be a good spoil of the war Konoha left _us_ to die in.”

Jiraiya grimaced but said nothing. He wasn’t a representative of Konoha and he knew little about the laws between the two villages; that was Tsunade’s domain.

“So I would like to hear your opinion: my request, simply, is to relocate to Konohagakure.” Hiroyuki leant back, crossing his legs at the ankles. A comfortable position, one to show he wasn’t a threat to the powerful man opposite him. “Relocate Naruto’s entire clan, and recall any clan members scattered across the Elemental Nations to Konohagakure.”

“Impossible,” Jiraiya said, furrowing his brow, already thinking of land they could use. It would make Konoha a sitting target. They would also have to escort the Uzumaki clan to Konoha: not a short, nor easy, journey – and the political unrest the Uzumaki clan caused when their population was in the thousands would cause outrage. The only way…

“Possible,” Hiroyuki countered. “There is a clan complex already there, though I assume even Kushina didn’t use it. It’s beside the Senju complex. I daresay it will still be in a very habitable state, even better than the housing here in Uzu, and protected with some old seals. As well as this, this is _our_ right as Uzumaki, from the joining of Mito and your Hashirama.”

“They’re not all Uzumaki,” Jiraiya tried another angle. “Uzushio was many people, not just the Uzumaki clan.”

“They’ve been claimed as Uzumaki, and that is that. Naruto is quite the sensor, but even she couldn’t detect that apart from the children, _we_ are _all_ trained, Jiraiya-sama, and the children will be trained too,” Hiroyuki smiled grimly. “And to deny us is to turn away any chance of our clan’s survival. Rest assured that if we _do_ forge an alliance with a village that isn’t Konoha, _Konoha_ will fall and Naruto taken to rule as Clan Leader. She’s a smart girl, that much is clear. She would learn.”

“You don’t know her. To destroy Konoha as some misguided form of revenge would make Naruto your most vile enemy,” Jiraiya said without confidence. Naruto hated Konoha; hated the people, hated the trees, hated the way Konoha took her mother away. Naruto would love it in Uzushio. “She’s going to be the next Hokage.”

“So it’s agreed, then,” Hiroyuki laughed. “The Uzumaki will migrate to Konoha when the Hokage agrees to our terms.”

“What terms?” Jiraiya asked, tilting his head. Land, freedom… “You would be Konoha Shinobi, if he chooses to trust you.”

“Obviously,” Hiroyuki smiled, using one arm to direct the boat to the shore of the decimated Hidden Village. “We would give as much as we could in exchange for such generosity – within reason, of course. The sanctity of Clan secrets would remain. And we would claim Naruto as ours.”

Jiraiya inclined his head, moving to summon a toad to relay this information. However, his Summon refused to come. In fact, his chakra barely moved at all. “I’m sorry, friend,” Hiroyuki said with a tone that did indicate he was not even slightly apologetic for the situation. “But there are ancient seals in place that refuse anyone but Uzumaki chakra in this village. It was the only way to stop looting.”

“That seems flawed,” Jiraiya muttered, tone damningly sarcastic as he gazed at the ruins. The sun beginning to set was testimony to how long they’d been in Uzu for; it cast the ruins in hues of red, orange and purple, and highlighted the thousands of grave markers lining the streets. As they moved he knew he was walking on corpses. His mouth moved in a prayer for the deceased, the walls bleached white from the sun but their red stains still reflecting the massacre of the Uzumaki. “How did you escape?”

“A drain tunnel,” Hiroyuki was lost in thought with Jiraiya. He knew where to step to avoid bodies, absently noticing the Toad Sannin imitating his footsteps. “Our best strategist turned the main safe-house into a trap as it was right on the barrier border: a safety measure designed to help us escape from the south of the village. We… Hoped Konoha would infiltrate that way, but they didn’t receive our summons in time. Instead we used a disused drain pipe, and set up absorption seals on the house. Anyone entering that way was drained of their lifeforce. Naruto’s grandfather, my son, Menma – he gave his life defending the entrance.” His feet took him to the drain pipe, exposed to plain sight from landslides caused by the explosions that took out a significant portion of the homes here. “We focused on the children at first, but it soon became every person for themselves; obviously the adults picked up the children, but once our reinforcement fuuin failed, the pipe collapsed. It was the only escape. Out of respect I rescued their bodies, but… This is the village of the dead.”


	11. The Letter to Konoha

Naruto was undergoing an entirely different experience to her sensei. She was being introduced to everyone on the island, each person determined to shake her hand or touch her hair. The children especially adored the experience, one of them even demanding a kiss on the forehead as though it was some kind of religious experience. However, Fumiko eventually shooed the children away so that the girl could wash herself. “We use seals to heat the onsen,” the woman explained, leading Naruto into the bathhouse. “The water is salt-water from the sea. Don’t be alarmed by the smell.”

Naruto was exhausted. Relaxing in hot water sounded like heaven, even if... There was a flutter, a curl in her gut, and bile rose again. She took a deep, steadying breath, glancing at her hands. Kyuubi had healed her scars, and she could feel her tenketsu were open again. She was safe. She was strong.

Nobody would ever get her in a position like that again.

“Hey, obaa-chan,” Naruto said, shrugging off her clothes and folding them neatly into a pile. She had more clothing sealed away on her arm so she wasn’t overly fussed about losing her clothes, but even still, she cast a weary glance around the room. “You got a brush on you? My hair needs a – oh.” Naruto stiffened as the woman started combing through her hair for her, the knots and tangles being worked out by gentle fingers. “Thank you.”

“No problem, Naruto-san,” Fumiko said with a rueful smile, catching Naruto’s eyes in a mirror. “This is the very least I can do for the clan heir.”

“Can you tell me about that?” Naruto murmured, eyelids fluttering as she relaxed. She couldn't help it. Fumiko felt - Fumiko felt like the sun on a hot summer day, radiant and _warm_ and glowing. “How can I be the heir? Surely you would select someone better? The little girl - Megumi, I think, hasn't she been groomed to fit the role?”

“That’s not the way of the Uzumaki, Naruto-san,” Fumiko murmured back, amused to see the young girl relax. From the girl’s unmarred skin, it was hard to tell that she was a kunoichi. In fact, the only blemish she could see was the whisker marks on her cheeks, and a faint ring of bruising around her neck. She was disturbed to find it looked like a large handprint, and her fingers skipped over it as she combed through the child's hair.

“We’re family, through and through. We’re all cousins here, even if your father is the third cousin of my mother. Our close-knit community was what made people fear us. Ultimately, we follow the main branch of the Uzumaki because that is the way it has always been. Children are named as heirs, but they have the right to refuse this. In a family of four children, one would ultimately become the Clan Head, and would have a good chance of becoming Uzukage dependent on skill and political clout. You may have noticed that not everyone possesses the red hair, but that’s because our gene pool was made up of everyone in Uzushio. If you married outside of the Uzumaki clan, their name would become Uzumaki – except in the occasion of, say, a Senju or an Uchiha marriage, but the Senju have intermarried with the Uzumaki so much they _are_ Uzumaki. The Hidden Village had other clans, but the Uzumaki were always in charge and always the Uzukage; the Asai clan, the Oyama clan, and the Tsutsumi clan.”

“But if everyone who married in became an Uzumaki, how did you have three other clans in the Hidden Village?” Naruto asked in interest as Fumiko moved away from the girl and slid the door open for the onsen. “Why didn’t anyone come looking for me?”

She took a step inside of the hot spring, the scent assaulting her nose both fragrant and overwhelming. There was a thick, cloying scent of salt, but with an undercurrent of orange incense. The water was bubbling with the sheer heat. She dropped her towel and put one foot straight in, hissing gently at the heat, and then submerged herself all at once. Curiously, she wasn't panicking at this water, but as it came to her waist at its deepest, she assumed that was why. 

“You’re only a genin, Naruto-san. I have no doubt that once people knew your name, you would have vicious enemies.” Fumiko said, gesturing for the child to follow. “And that’s because those clans generally avoided marrying outside of their clans. The Uzumaki had a clan population of… Oh, twelve hundred?” Fumiko tilted her head. “Admittedly, that’s because we would have five generations of the same clan. The average life expectancy was above one hundred years old, assuming people didn’t die in combat. With such age came a vast transmission of information – and our youth was so determined to progress the old techniques! Kushina-chan was one of the fastest learners we had, always questioning the laws of physics and attempting to conjure something from nothing. She would make ridiculous seals that never worked.” Fumiko giggled. “She attempted to create a permanent storage seal that would become a part of the skin, disappearing if not in use. I do wonder if she ever created it.”

Naruto swallowed the lump in her throat, leaning her head against the damp stones. _I shouldn't say anything,_ she thought. But this was _family_. The one thing she had _ever_ wanted... “Like this?” she asked, focusing her chakra to the seal on her arm. Fumiko stared in surprise as the girl put her hand inside of her arm and removed a blank scroll.

“That’s…” Fumiko grabbed Naruto’s arm, assessing the spiral of kanji that was pure Uzumaki in design, and yet something she had never seen before in her forty years of living. Fumiko tilted her head, attempting to put her hand into the vacuum Naruto had created but just finding it to be flesh. “That’s because of that matrix there,” Fumiko whispered to herself, stroking the seal. “And you created this, Naruto-san?”

“I thought of it, yeah,” Naruto muttered, a bit disgruntled to have a stranger latched onto her arm so casually. She needed to talk to someone about her anxiety, because no good ninja suffered with mental health issues during missions. “Jiraiya-sensei doesn’t understand it either, but you can do _anything_ with seals! I’ve known this seal since I was a kid – since I was an Academy student, at least.”

“Where does it go?” Fumiko asked, eyes lit up at such a discovery. “It’s a separate dimension, I assume? A pocket where you can store small things?”

“A very big pocket if that’s what you’re gonna’ call it,” Naruto mused, tapping her chin. “I’ve put all sorts in there. We even managed to squeeze one of Jiraiya’s medium-sized summons in there, not that he was very happy about it.”

“And how big is that?” Fumiko asked in amusement.

Naruto leant her head back, eyes closed. “Two metres up and across,” She grinned. “Hey, Fumiko-san? Will you guys come and live with me in Konoha?”

“I… Don’t know, Naruto-san,” Fumiko said, biting her lip. “It would be incredibly difficult to relocate all of us, and it would put us at risk. I don’t know what we could offer the Hokage of Konoha in return for safety.”

“Jiji wouldn’t mind,” Naruto decided with a gentle hum, summoning a toad. The toad balanced very neatly on the water. “Gamako, I need you to relay a message for me.” The girl opened her eyes and turned, summoning a scroll and an inkwell from her arm seal. With a practiced hand, she wrote:

_Hey Jiji!_

_It’s me, Naruto. Don’t worry about the seals; it’s for anti-spy purposes, I’m sure you’ll understand why. I’m in Uzushio with the old perv._

_I need you to sit down, grandpa. This is pretty big news._

_We navigated the seas to Uzushio while I worked on spinning my chakra two different ways inside a ball. It’s difficult. I think you should teach it at the Academy. Upon approaching what looked like a deserted island, the water started getting weird._

_It was like a really bad current. I got sucked under while Jiraiya-sensei tried to grab me. I made a seal that I think threw me onto the island._

_I was met with the remainder of the Uzushio people._

_I know._

_I’m not lying, Jiji. I have met Uzumaki Hiroyuki, Uzumaki Fumiko, Uzumaki Kosuke and Megumi, his daughter, and these are my family through my mother. If I had to guess, over 300 people are here, all of them having survived the massacre at Uzushio._

_I know this is a huge situation and I know you have to consider the village first, but if there is any chance of rehoming my family in Konoha, I would like to request it as future Hokage, hehe._

_I think Jiraiya-sensei is speaking to Hiroyuki-jiji about it. They went somewhere in a boat. As my Hokage, and as my loyalty remains strong to Konohagakure, your decision is final and as a Shinobi of Konoha, I will respect your decision. However, as my grandfather, it only seems fair to let you know I’ve found survivors before I drag them home with me._

_Tsunade-sensei says I’m really bad at writing letters, especially ones that pertain to political situations. I apologise for that. I do think it’s better that you get a warning first, before Jiraiya-sensei sends you a letter._

_Love,_

_Naruto_

Part of her wondered if she wanted to relocate her newfound clan members to Konoha. She still questioned her loyalty to the village. But there was no way the Uzumaki could stay here, hidden behind seals in the hope that someone else may one day find them and find them a new home. They needed someone to give them a choice, something that _she_ never had: and so she gave them a choice.

"I will talk to Hiroyuki," Fumiko said with a smile. "Now, Naruto, tell me about yourself."

"Myself?" Naruto asked in surprise. "I'm... I'm pretty boring. I want - I used to want to be the Hokage," She laughed, one hand rising to rub at her neck. "But no woman has ever been a Kage, let alone the Hokage. I contain the Nine-Tailed Beast, and to be honest, he's saved my life a few times." Naruto blinked, a sudden pressure in her head, and then it was gone. She got the feeling of curiosity, but she wasn't sure - if it was hers. "Though he's not much of a conversationalist."

"Him?" Fumiko asked.

"I think he's male, yes," Naruto said, suddenly uncertain. "I've never really... Spoken - to him before, but I - it's difficult to describe it. Have you ever felt uncertain of your own gender?" Fumiko looked confused. "When I get angry... I just get this overwhelming _anger_ , and I know part of it comes from my mum -- but there's a big part of me that doesn't think it's my mum, part of me feels - masculine, almost. So when I refer to Kyuubi as him, instead of it, it's just because I get the feeling he's male."

"Fascinating," Fumiko said, and Naruto was ready to blush, hide her face in the hot water - but Fumiko wasn't being sarcastic. She looked delighted, in fact. "And it-he, _he_ talks to you?"

"He's talked to me once," she said, brow furrowed. "I think it was him. I nearly died, and he made my seal release." She gestured to her Strength of One Hundred seal, funneling a small chunk of chakra to it as she did. It felt _empty._ Felt as empty as the day she'd created it.

"How did you nearly die?" Fumiko asked, shifting closer. Her shock of red hair was almost blood-like in colour.

"I got sloppy. Jiraiya was waiting for me to notice, but I was so focused on learning a particular injury to heal that I just... didn't notice. I went to get dinner, and they followed - they had me under the water," Naruto clasped her own throat, feeling her pulse. "I was cocky. It won't happen again."

"No," Fumiko whispered, a vicious glint in her eyes. "I'll kill them for you."

"Oh, don't worry," Naruto said, shrouding her right hand in a chakra scalpel. "He's dead. And _then_ I went toe-to-toe with some S-class criminals - well, one S-class criminal, after the Kyuubi. My previous mentor, Tsunade-sama, taught me some healing basics. Shizune and I worked on a nerve-disruption attack that mixes nerve signals to the brain, so with enough exposure, his nerves started working wrong."

Fumiko was quiet for a long time, and then she asked: "And did they die, too?" Naruto shook her head and Fumiko grimaced. "So they know your skillset," she said, and Naruto's brain came to a screeching stop. "And they're likely to try again knowing you're a close-range fighter. So all they have to do is stay out of your way."

"He had this big sword, so I think he was a close-range fighter too," Naruto argued, swallowing thickly. 

She had lost her element of surprise; lost her secrecy; lost her anonymity to Akatsuki. She was still _just_ a genin, unlike some of the other Sacrifices - and _Gaara_ \- what if they went for him next? He wasn't as trained as she - how could he be with a father like that?

"You need to learn how to use seals long-range," Fumiko decided, touching Naruto's wet hair. "And your hair colour doesn't help. I've got some ceremonial cloths. I was going to gift them to my child... But that won't be happening anytime soon. I would be honoured to give them to you, child."

"Thank you," Naruto said automatically, because it was improper to refuse a gift. _But I fucked up_ , she thought, jaw setting as her teeth clenched together. _Because I used the Kyuubi, I used medical-ninjutsu, and I showed how fast I can run. I also showed my strength._

_I fucked up._

"What are you thinking, child?" Fumiko asked, expression soft and warm and loving and _god_ , _she'd fucked up._

"I used the Kyuubi's chakra, I used my medical ninjutsu, and I showed how fast and strong I am," Naruto babbled, it all bursting over. "I killed a man the other day and I didn't even know he was following me. He could have done anything to me -- _anything_ , Fumiko-baachan." And Fumiko understood, she could see the way the lady tensed. "I'm - I'm only just eleven years old, and... And there's so much happening _to me_ and _around me_ that I can't make sense of. Why doesn't the village want me--?" Naruto crumbled, her hardness melting away.

Fumiko did what anyone would do with a crying child.

She hugged her.

"We can work on it," Fumiko whispered with all the patience of a saint. "I'll say my prayers for you, and Uzushio will guide you as she does with all wayward children that live here."

Naruto sobbed for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes. "Y-yeah," she sniffled. "W-what is that? It started t-tugging on my chakra!"

Fumiko laughed, and Naruto couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up. Between the teary eyes and the snotty nose, she was almost textbook hysterical. But Fumiko didn't seem to mind, a calming presence in all of the tumult she'd experienced. 

"She's a very playful thing," Fumiko agreed. "I'll introduce you to her properly later. It's a system created by our second Uzukage, Mana. She died during the attack by Kiri, but left us a chakra imprint on a carved stone. It acts as a conduit for the barriers over the island. We call it Manako. But that's a very big secret that I haven't told you, okay?"

"Okay," Naruto whispered, marvelling at the sealing mastery that must have taken. "Your Uzukage was a - a woman?"

Fumiko beamed. "Hiroyuki-sama is our first, and third, Uzukage, but his daughter was our second Uzukage. Then there was her brother, Menma, who was Kushina's father. Your family tree is quite extensive, Naruto. You met Kosuke - he's the son of the Uzukage, hence why Megumi was to be the clan head in lieu of Kushina's line. Menma was born first, making him Hiroyuki's heir, and he had Kushina before Mana had Kosuke - I'm sorry, you look exhausted." Fumiko laughed. "That's a story and an explanation for another time, I think!"

"There's so many of you," Naruto murmured, eyes soft as she gazed at the Uzumaki. "I found a book in the library. The librarian gave me the rest of the information about my family, but I - I never imagined I'd find any of you. Ever. I was always looking for red hair."

"You've got us, now," Fumiko whispered back. "And believe me when I say family is everything to the Uzumaki clan. Nobody will ever, ever, _ever_ let you go, now, not that we know about you. You are ours as we are yours, whether you be clan head or married into the clan. Now... I do think you should be on your way back to Konoha. When your mentor is back from touring the Hidden Village with Hiroyuki-sama, you really must set off back. That's not the kind of information you deliver through scroll."

"Got to make something, first," Naruto disagreed, shaking her head. "And I think I'm gonna' need Hiroyuki to do it."

Naruto went into an explanation of a "transportation" scroll, a whirlwind of information that left Fumiko's head spinning. "So you plan on flushing the children through the Toad lands and into Konoha," she simplified, finally, finally getting her head around the mechanics. "I can't see how--"

"With this," Naruto said with a _fire_ , using her blood to stain the white stone of the onsen with a simple seal: her father's Hiraishin. "I used this the other day with no grounding seal, and the only - the _only_ explanation must be this matrix," She drew over it with a swirl of kanji. "That grounds me in space-time. But if we do this--" And Naruto added a two-pair seal either side of the seal, with an additional point above it to represent space. "Then the seal becomes functional as a mode of transportation over _space_."

"What about time?" Fumiko asked, calmly. "You need Point A and Point B to be charged at the same time, and something to link them."

"That's the frustrating thing," Naruto said, deflating somewhat. "I can't... I can't grasp time. I need someone to go over the entire thing with me. It is so much more complex that this," Naruto ran water over her blood, clearing the seal away. "And has a lot more in terms of Steel seals to keep it strong, but the amount of chakra input into the incomplete seal to make it a complete seal over space and time is - extraordinary. I'd need four Kage's to even get close, and Konoha would have me and the Hokage."

"You are like a battery pack," Fumiko mused. "Like a --"

And Fumiko couldn't say it.

Uzumaki Naruto was a weapon, and Fumiko couldn't be the one to tell her that.

 _It doesn't make sense to send her away with two Sannin_ , she thought, _The Hokage should have ultimate power, so why would he send his best weapon away, unless it was to truly weaponise her?_

Ostracise her from her peers, give her enough to love people in the village - to protect the village - keep her ignorant of her heritage just so - and they had the ultimate weapon: a child with political clout, and the physical power to back it up.

Naruto was a weapon, and she didn't even know it.

"Tell me about Tsunade-sama," she said with a stiff smile.

"She taught me so much," Naruto sighed, rubbing her fingers against the seal flush with the tenketsu point in her forehead. "She taught me about my role as a woman in this world, and she's the closest thing I have to a mum."

"Oh?" Fumiko asked, tilting her head. "You mean the existing inequality between men and women in typical shinobi villages."

"Ding ding ding," Naruto giggled, cheeks flushing. "She taught me a lot about Konoha. I wish... I wish we could stay here, instead of going back, but..."

"The world is rarely so kind," Fumiko agreed, concern easing somewhat. She would have to shake Tsunade's hand. Instead of fostering a love of the village, she seemed to have stoked the flames of dislike, and Fumiko _knew_ that their idea of their jinchuuriki would soon collapse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am obsessed with a semi-sentient Uzushio, and I am hopeful I have introduced it well enough. Here we have Naruto realising the extent of what she has revealed to people who want to do her harm, and an Uzumaki realising just how manipulative Konoha has become (or always was?)


	12. Transportation Seals

Hiruzen surveyed the jounin team in front of him, lips pursed. His hands were crossed in front of him, Naruto and Jiraiya’s letters – one scroll significantly longer than the other – in full view of the assembled team. Two scrolls bearing the Uzumaki crest were to the right of the two letters; a method of transportation, apparently. Between the genius of Uzumaki Hiroyuki, the seal master so powerful he had saved over one hundred Uzushio residents from certain death, and (with no small amount of pride) Uzumaki Naruto, his troublesome, spritely granddaughter, they had created a seal matrix that would transfer fifty children per scroll from Uzushio to Konoha. They had to be children whose chakra networks hadn’t developed fully, which meant numerous under-eight-year-old children being flushed through two scrolls to appear in Konohagakure. _I’m too old for this_. “This is an A-Rank mission,” he said, tone grave. “I have received correspondence from Uzumaki Naruto and Jiraiya the Sannin about a discovery in Uzushio. You have been chosen to escort a… Caravan, shall we say, of the remaining members of Uzushiogakure, left behind from its destruction.”

Hatake Kakashi reacted first. The jounin moved his hitai-ate upwards, his Sharingan eye spinning at the Hokage. “Impossible,” he said, both eyes flicking to the scrolls on the table. And yet he couldn’t detect any deceit from the scrolls, nor any hidden messages. “What are they?” Kakashi gestured to the two scrolls on the table, lowering his headband with a small grunt.

“These are… Transportation seals,” Hiruzen closed his eyes, preparing himself for outcry, “Developed by Uzumaki Hiroyuki and Uzumaki Naruto. They will transport ninety-four toddlers into the Uzumaki compound.”

“What?” Kurenai demanded. Her voice was merely one of many. “How many survivors are there? What does this mean for Konoha? You’re telling me that a _ghost_ and a _child_ made seals so advanced they can transport _one hundred_ children to Konoha?”

More voices joined the fray, the assembled jounin all confused by the development. Hiruzen opened his eyes again. Twenty jounin, plus eight former ANBU. He could assign twenty-eight chuunin alongside the teams, but that would highlight the mission’s rank to outsiders – and they didn’t have the budget for it. As it was, he was hoping he could subsidize these wages with access to Uzumaki techniques and seals, instead of paying out in full cash to twenty-eight skilled members of his Shinobi force.

However… The opportunity to gain over fifty, decently aged, trained Shinobi was too great, plus the potential of the Uzumaki children going into the Academy to learn. The benefits of the Uzumaki clan’s presence would be immediately noticed on their strapped shinobi reserves. He didn’t know Uzumaki Hiroyuki well, but he had mourned the man when he had 'passed'. The first Uzukage, then hand (the father) of the Second Uzukage, now _the_ Uzukage – soon to be another member of the Shinobi council, stripped of his prestigious title for the sake of the future of his clan. Hiruzen could respect him for that. It was time for him to pass the hat along, and yet they wouldn't let an old man pass on peacefully!

“Well?” Kurenai asked, shaking her head at the Hokage. He had just stared at them, waiting for the furore to die. “We’re going to become a target. There is a _reason_ they were wiped out – Hokage-sama…”

“Yes,” A child’s voice joined into the fray. Naruto slipped past Kurenai, her cheeks flushed and hair windswept from her journey. “Yes, there was a reason the Uzumaki clan was destroyed. However, there is a reason they _survived_ , jounin-san. Hokage-sama?” Naruto turned to him. Hiruzen’s eyes twinkled at the sight of the girl. When he had demanded she come as soon as possible, he didn’t realise she would run the distance between Wave and Fire within a day. “May I speak?”

“Permission granted,” Hiruzen said, popping some more tobacco into his pipe and heating the bottom of it using his fingers.

“I know this is odd,” Naruto said, a touch breathlessly. Every jounin was watching her, even the guy who called her a cry-baby. It was enthralling to have such power, such command - and she craved more. “But my family is alive and well. Since the joining of Uzumaki Mito and Senju Hashirama, Konoha and Uzushio have been linked. I don’t pretend to know what my cousins went through, but… We as Konoha citizens owe it to them. To the dead. To the children. They deserve to thrive under the watchful eyes of our Hokage. Hiroyuki-jiisan has agreed to act as Clan Head until I’m deemed ready to take over the clan, but… He also agreed to _help_. To defend the village with shinobi, with kunoichi, with children, with _seals_.”

“This is an opportunity for war,” Kakashi said simply, shaking his head with a smile. “And yet this is the greatest opportunity we’ve had since the destruction wrought by the Kyuubi.”

“How?” Kurenai asked furiously, cheeks pinkening in outrage. Asuma placed a hand on her forearm that the woman shrugged off with a curse.

“Because they survived,” Kakashi murmured, tilting his head at Naruto. The girl gave him a cheeky grin and a thumbs-up. “It would be a threat to other villages. They don’t know about the Kyuubi jinchuuriki being in Konoha, and the rest of major villages have one or two containers. It would increase our mission intake by having that display of power. And when our jinchuuriki is ready to blossom into the whirlpool we know they are… Well, we’ll have the best new Hokage going with their family to back them up.” He eye-smiled at the young girl.

Naruto listened with rapt attention, her eyes widened at the direct insinuation about the identity of _her_ in front of the Hokage – the scarecrow was breaking the Hokage’s law in front of him! She glanced at the old man but his expression was unreadable. If she had to guess… He looked a little proud… and a little constipated.

“What are the mission details?” Asuma asked gruffly, looking between his father and Naruto. He liked the kid. He didn’t do enough for her, Kami knew that, but nobody did. “For you to dispatch twenty eight jounin, I mean.”

“The survivors of Uzushio will be moving as a caravan,” Hiruzen said again, puffing on his pipe. “Disguised as merchants. However, you are to be stationed at individual points along their path to provide assistance in case of an attack. All of you have some skill in tracking, in illusion and hiding, and some of you are just damn good fighters. They wanted to run here as fast as they could, but it would make sense for them to bring belongings and lost possessions where possible. I – _we_ cannot afford to turn them away. However… We must also show our strength to our newest Clan. They will _all_ be assessed by the T & I department, as agreed by Hiroyuki – starting with the children. I will need four of you to act as conduits – oh, is it pillars?” Naruto flushed from her position of mouthing ‘pillars’ at the Hokage, but nodded frantically. “ _Pillars_ for the transportation seal. Children are the simplest to interrogate. Asuma, Genji, Anko, Kakashi – you will meet Naruto and I here at 0300 _sharp_.” Hiruzen glowered at Kakashi, but his laziest ANBU-cum-jounin sensei looked the most serious he had seen him in a while. “The four Inuzuka trackers will leave Konoha today at 1800 in order to scout the area and gain the most ground to Wave before the Uzumaki depart. Naruto?”

Naruto perked up at her name and nodded. “They’ll be leaving tomorrow at 1300. If you’re good, you should be there for when they set off.” She frowned. “But their journey will be slow. They have estimated it will take them twelve days to get to Konoha at a merchant’s pace, especially with the political climate in Wave. That does leave plenty of time to sort out the compound.”

“That is a separate matter,” Hiruzen told her gently, before continuing, “The rest of you will depart tomorrow morning at 0600. Disguise yourselves and your rank. The safety of a great clan is on your shoulders. Prepare yourselves accordingly. Dismissed. Naruto, remain.”

The jounin left the room in a daze. Naruto hopped between feet, sitting opposite the old man. “Jiji?” she asked, brows furrowed.

Hiruzen smiled at her. “You did a good job, Naruto,” he praised her, removing a scroll from a compartment in his desk and sliding it over to her. “Your mother would be so proud. Open it.”

Naruto fingered the scroll in interest. It was old, the paper waxy with some kind of residue. She opened the scroll and began to read,

_My dearest Naruto,_

_If you’re reading this, it means that I’m dead. Duh! Otherwise I would have told you this every day, every year! It’s your momma, Kushina. That’s my name if you don’t know it yet. You are the descendent of a great clan – a powerful and strong clan. Most importantly, you’re my little baby. I don’t know yet if you’re going to be a girl or a boy. Your father and I decided to let fate decide._

_I love you. We love you. I can’t tell you who your father is because it isn’t safe, but I am your mother and I am proud of you. So proud. I’m six months along now, and your father has made contingency plans for my seal breaking. If that happens, momma will keep you safe with her chakra chains. You might have them if you’re a girl! Apart from old bastard Hiroyuki, no male has manifested them! Mind, if you're a boy, I think you will. Little badass._

_As I said, I am the descendent of a great and powerful clan. Our talent for fuiinjutsu was unparalleled. While I write this, I am heartbreakingly aware that my clan – your clan – our clan – is no more. My heart hopes Kosuke is alive, but he was a child when Uzushio was destroyed. I have called Konoha home, but my heart longs for Uzushio. Perhaps one day you’ll visit._

_I’m going off on a tangent. Sorry, little Naruto. Kami, I hope you’re a boy. You’ll hate being a girl called fishcake._

_My clan is the only one strong enough to contain the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the nine-tailed demon fox. We are preparing for my seal to break. I, your mother, am a jinchuuriki. My seal will be the weakest when I give birth. I worry that you’ll grow up with fox-related deformities. Your father says there is more chance of the moon plummeting to earth and destroying our world as we know it, but… If my seal weakens and the Kyuubi escapes, we’ll have to seal it back into me. I won’t let you become its container. Momma would sooner take that bastard fox with her to the grave than let you suffer._

_But._

_Your father tells me that I should prepare you for the eventuality that you may contain the demon fox. He’s so annoying when he’s right. When you find out his job, you’ll know exactly why he had me write these words:_

_You are not the fox if you are the container. Make the bastard work for you. He gets to live in you rent free! I didn’t even get to live rent free as an orphan!_

_If I am dead and you are the container of the demon… I’m sorry for your pain, Naruto. I truly am. I hope above all else that your father survives to take care of you. If he doesn’t… Just know that you are so, so very loved, demon fox or no. And besides, momma had the fox for so long – it’d be nice to give something back to you._

_I’ll be leaving this letter in our home. If I survive, I’ll destroy it. If I don’t, I hope you receive it. Now! In order to get into our home, you will need to smear a little blood on the door. It should accept you. Our home is built on the Uzumaki clan compound in Konoha, but that place is like a graveyard, it’s so deserted. Maybe when you give me some grandchildren, we can live in the main house. Your father and I had genin teams repaint it when I found out I was pregnant, but it could do with some TLC._

_I love you, Naruto._

_I hope you don't have whiskers._

_Your mother,_

_Uzumaki Kushina_

Naruto looked up, eyes wet with tears. However, she was a kunoichi. She kept them back through sheer willpower alone. “Thank you, jiji,” she whispered, rolling the letter back up. She cleared her throat and grinned, “I’ll need some genin teams to start clearing up the clan compound as soon as possible. I… I don’t have the money to do that, though. I’ve got knowledge.”

Hiruzen leant forward, starting to smile. “And what knowledge would that be, Naruto-chan?” he asked in amusement. ‘Knowledge’ in exchange for services. He was grateful for the Uzumaki giving them both money and jewels, as well as knowledge, for the 24 jounin he was sending away from the village that could be better used here, on the ground. He couldn’t be sure that this wasn’t an elaborate scheme to get Konoha weakened in the case of an invasion, so he had the village on high alert for any suspicious activity. Thus far, he had received four reports of pranks. Typical.

Naruto pulled her sleeve up and channelled chakra to her arm seal, removing a large scroll not dissimilar to the Forbidden Scroll she stole so long ago. “This is from Iwa,” she said cheerfully, putting it down on the Hokage’s desk. “I… Had a little accident with a shinobi from Iwa a few months ago. I wasn’t aware he was there, he’d been stalking me for two days, Jiraiya was doing ‘research’ – to cut a long story short, he was my first kill.” She tilted her head. “But… It looks like he was pretty important as far as Iwa techniques go. He had this on him. He had two, actually, but the other one burnt up when I attempted to unseal it. This one took a bit longer but I cracked it. There’s four B-rank Earth techniques on there Jiraiya had never encountered, as well as six A-rank techniques. There’s one S-rank technique that seems to be a kamikaze technique.”

“Genin Uzumaki,” Hiruzen said, startled. Such a resource… It would sour relations between their already-torn nations if word got out they had this wealth of information. “What happened with the body?”

“He was in the Bingo Book. I claimed the bounty.” Naruto smiled, slightly guiltily. “To clarify, I do have the money to pay the genin teams… But I need that for furnishing the compound.”

“I accept this as payment.” Hiruzen decided, one aged hand stroking the length of the scroll. Naruto looked surprised. “Yes?”

“I have one more from Kumo,” she said, removing a long, narrow scroll from her arm. He marvelled at the odd sight. “Though this looks small, Jiraiya says this is… Crucial to subduing a tailed beast. I assume you’re aware of their jinchuuriki?” Hiruzen nodded. “They’re used to the Eight-Tails rampaging through their village. This… This is a series of instructions for subduing the beast, Hokage-sama. I don’t know if it would work on the Nine-Tails, but if it ever came to it… Like my mother wrote in her letter, the seal weakens during pregnancy.”

_You foolish young girl_ , Hiruzen the surrogate grandfather wanted to say. But as the Hokage, this was a fantastic opportunity to learn how to subdue the most powerful of the demons. “There is no proof that this would work on the Nine-Tails, whom we know to be the strongest of the demons,” he said instead. “When Minato sealed the beast away, he took half of its chakra with him to the Shinigami’s stomach. While you only contain half of the beast, the Kyuubi is still the strongest demon on our mortal realm.”

“Hokage-sama?” Naruto asked, tone quieter than he had ever heard it. “Don’t let your feelings for me cloud your judgement. I am your granddaughter second to your being Hokage.”

“Naruto,” Hiruzen chided softly, eyes warm. “Keep this. Your father was a seal master. I trust in Minato’s work.”


	13. Bridge the Gap

At 0300, Naruto paced in front of the Hokage’s office. The four jounin chosen weren’t here yet, and she couldn’t sense the old man anywhere!

“Stop, kid,” Anko launched a senbon at the jinchuuriki kid. She was pleasantly surprised to see the girl, quick as a flash, deflect the senbon using the back of her gloves. “Damn!” Anko dropped down from the ceiling, grabbing the girl’s hand and assessing them. “These from Suna? There’s no plate but the senbon didn’t pierce your skin.”

“My friend sent me them,” Naruto said, relaxing slightly once she realised this was one of the jounin the Hokage had ordered to be there. “He says it’s metal mesh that can conduct chakra under the cloth. It’s proving temperamental with my wind affinity though – he says it’s a prototype.”

“Some friend,” Anko smirked. “I’m Anko, brat. Your name?”

“Naruto,” Naruto said with a little grin. “You gave me dango when I was younger.”

Anko raised one eyebrow, smiling back. She didn’t expect the kid to remember. Anko was having a shit time that day, only a chuunin, and the chumps she was working with teasing her about that snake fuckface. When she had seen a little brat just about dodge a glass fucking bottle, she snapped and sent her snakes after him. His screams and the scent of piss helped calm her anger somewhat.

“ _What was that for, lady?_ ” the little brat had demanded, hitting Anko in the shin. “ _Now he’s gonna get even madder and his lady won’t give me the burnt bread_!”

“ _Shut up, brat,_ ” Anko had snarled back. The kid didn’t even flinch. “ _And get on my fucking back!_ ”

The little brat didn’t question her, clambering up onto her back in a pretty shit piggy back. Anko had used the roof to travel to her favourite dango shop. “ _Wait here_ ,” Anko had said. Within two minutes she returned to the small child and gave her a small box full of dango. “ _Go home, brat._ ”

It was hard to equate the small, androgynous child to the young woman standing in front her. Naruto was slowly developing, but the curve of her jaw with the sharpness of her chin would soon be a heart-shaped face to trick men into bed. Her body spoke of curves to be gained, her waist whittled thin by hard work and being a Kunoichi. Her long blonde hair braided back into a thick waterfall of gold would be the envy of all. And her eyes… Anko was envious. This child, despite her status as a genin, would go far further in the Seduction team than Anko would, despite her big tits and gorgeous ass. It wasn’t fair!

“Still a cry-baby I see,” Kakashi drawled, strolling through the door with his perverted book in hand. Anko wanted to skewer him. “And still short.”

“Shut up, you one-eyed pervert,” Naruto snapped back. “I hope you’re ready to test out a highly experimental transportation seal that should ultimately end up in ninety-four children rampaging through Konoha.”

“Don’t remind me,” Kakashi groaned, resting his forearm on the shortie’s head. “I don’t know how Anko is going to cope with the stress.”

“I don’t know how any of us are,” Hiruzen drifted into the room, a cup of steaming coffee in his hands. Naruto scented the air and thought there might be a little extra something in it. Rum? “Ibiki has asked Inoichi to bring in some retired Yamanaka investigators. Naruto, are you ready? Genji and Asuma are already at the compound. You did say the Uzumaki compound, yes?”

Naruto nodded, leading the way. She had no real idea where it was, but it didn’t matter as the Hokage corrected her whenever she went wrong. She kept going until she found what seemed to be a forest that shifted before her very eyes, revealing one large gate to the Uzumaki compound. Asuma and Genji were waiting, a cloud of cigarette smoke and several stubs an indication of how long they’d taken to get there.

“Your mother loved this place,” Kakashi mused out loud, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for Naruto to reveal it. “Your father too.”

“Huh?” Anko asked loudly, pulling a face. “Who’s your father, brat? C’mon, tell me!”

Naruto shot her a disgruntled look and shook her head, biting her thumb and rubbing the tiniest amount of blood on the gate doors before the Kyuubi could heal her. The compound blossomed, the chakra coursing through its protective seals _singing_ as it welcomed her home. “I’m home,” she whispered, a little smile curling at her lips. The Hokage, her jiji, was a comforting warmth at her side, though he maintained a professional distance as all good Kage’s should. “Shall we begin?”

The Hokage hummed a soft agreement and they moved as a unit with the genin in front, her chakra spread wide to find the best place to do such a summoning. Reliant on the principles of reverse summoning, they found it simpler to go through the Toad’s lands to transport the children. However, the children themselves wouldn’t have a clue – they would be in one place, and then suddenly in the next.

Finding a big open field of land, overgrown from years of neglect, Naruto removed a small scroll from her arm seals. She unsealed it, revealing a huge scroll over six foot in length. She rolled it out, the black kanji script swirled with red kanji winking in the sunlight. She directed the jounin to where they needed to be, the Hokage in the centre and acting as the most powerful pillar. Naruto then knelt at the edge of the scroll. “Conduct your chakra into the scroll,” she instructed them all. “It might feel like it’s sucking at your chakra, but Hokage-sama and I will be the main providers of chakra. That doesn’t mean this won’t be chakra intensive. This is a prototype and I can already find four ways to improve the chakra drain. When it feels like too much, you need to end the _fuuin_. Is that understood?”

Murmured affirmations met her sensitive ears, each jounin now acutely aware of the drain this would be on them. “Good,” Naruto said with a smile. “Shall we begin?”

Several nods to the Hokage had him incline his head at the genin. With a small murmur, Naruto rubbed her hands together, blue chakra swirling around them visible to the naked eye. The balls of chakra grew and grew until she slammed her hands down, the black ink surging blue across the six foot of scroll. “ _Fuuin_ ,” she whispered, eyes closed as she began to focus on the individual pillars. Stability, space, time, transportation, with two extra buffers as the chakra sources enhancing the stability pillar.

Anko nearly staggered from the sudden pull on her chakra, the ink creeping up her feet and legs like hands. _Or snakes_ , she mused, kneeling and placing her hands on the ink. It sucked her chakra the way she imagined newborn babes sucked on their mother’s, greedy and unyielding. Within minutes she felt drained, with no children to be seen. She glanced around the small group, noting Kakashi had his Sharingan activated and Asuma had a bead of sweat on his brow. The Hokage looked… Calm and unconcerned, which wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was the glow around Naruto’s hands merely glowing larger. If she had to estimate the chakra output the genin was giving off, she would estimate that she, a Tokubetsu Jounin trained under Orochimaru, would have passed out by now for attempting such a feat.

And suddenly the children started appearing. Anko’s eyes widened as the limited space on the scroll was filled with ten children. “Move,” Naruto ordered, opening one eye and grinning at the kids. “C’mon, you know better than to stand there and gawp. Mariko-chan, c’mon!”

The ten children scattered and got behind Naruto, each of them clearly under the age of ten and gawping up at the Hokage. The little girl Anko assumed to be Mariko wrapped her arms around Naruto’s neck and pressed a wet kiss to her cheek. “ _Fuuin_ ,” Anko gasped, dropping back. Her arms were like jelly. Her legs could barely move. She felt like a newborn kitten.

“ _Fuuin_ ,” Genji muttered too, cheeks flushed as he stepped away from the scroll. His whole body shook. “Sorry, Hokage-sama.”

The Hokage looked more under strain now, his brows furrowing as the chakra demand increased twicefold. Kakashi had covered his Sharingan again, though Anko wasn’t sure why.

Naruto was trying not to grimace. She had already extended herself quite far, though her extensive chakra control was helping with the strain. “Mariko,” she said, nodding her head one empty spot. “Kensuke.”

“Naruto-chan?” the Hokage asked in surprise. “You can’t mean that, surely. They’re children.”

“We got this, old man,” Kensuke said confidently, taking Mariko’s hand as the two children stood in the abandoned spots. “Don’t doubt us, ‘tteben!”

Naruto grinned, both children’s chakra systems sparking to life. Kensuke had chakra that reminded her of a wildfire, while Mariko would make an excellent front-line medic due to the way her chakra rolled like a stream. A pretty massive stream, but a stream nevertheless. “These seals are better suited to Uzumaki chakra systems,” Naruto explained as more children appeared, these children a lot younger than the ones before. Naruto gestured for the older children to pick up the toddlers. One toddler crawled over to Anko, her deep brown eyes fixated on the woman and her mouth open in a wide smile. Anko counted three teeth and admired the way the little girl’s hair had been tied to make it – her – look like an onion. Someone had a sense of humour. “It’s one of the ways Hiroyuki-jii and I need to make these better. The reason why the strain is so bad is because most Uzumaki have dense chakra, and these seals are effectively making a seal through time and space – a bit like a straw that these guys get squeezed through.”

Mariko grinned as more babies appeared, these ones particularly squirmy and trying to escape before they even realised they were in a new place. “It helps Naruto-chan is super strong,” she boasted, chest puffing up. “I ovaheard Kumi-neesan saying how much chakra Naruto has because of the fox! I dunno’ what fox she means but I think it’s a summon.”

Kakashi was nearly choking while Hiruzen just ‘hmmed’. “What does a brat like you know about summons?” he jibed, cracking a smile as the child huffed.

“I have the otter summons,” Mariko pouted, tilting her head. “And Kensuke has it too. He’s got different otters though! And my otters give me chakra when I need it, especially when I’m battling against Kumi-neesan. She’s the best fighter we got. You’ll like her, old man!”

“Yeah!” Kensuke chimed in, nodding along with his twin sister as she spoke. His hands were trembling with the strain of holding the _fuuin_ , but he could definitely manage to get the fourth batch through the seal before he had to swap out. “Oh, mama said to say that the fifth load will be the hardest. She says she’s coming through because of the baby.”

Naruto blinked owlishly at him. “Anko-san, Genji-san?” she asked. “Do you think you could step in for that?”

“Sure thing, kid,” Anko said with a small sigh, watching the utter mayhem caused by thirty kids and glad she purged herself of such thoughts when she was younger. “I feel… Surprisingly okay.”

“Same,” Genji agreed, rolling his neck. “Hokage-sama? Do you require anything?”

“A stiff drink,” the Hokage replied with an easy smile, his heart fluttering at the sight of so many red-headed children in one place. He hoped Uzumaki Mito looked down on this moment with pride. Hell, he hoped Kushina forgave him for Naruto’s treatment because of this. His eyes moved to Naruto, the incredible genin who kickstarted all of this. He had no doubt that there would be ripples across the Elemental Nations once their identity had been revealed, but he hoped they could keep them under wraps until Naruto made chuunin. He could limit Uzumaki jounin to the Fire Country only, and it would work with the parole they were expected to undertake from the Shinobi council. He had pushed for each person, each child, to be mentally assessed: the worst situation possible would be to introduce traitors to the village.

His greatest mistake was not sending aid in time. Konoha’s darkest moment, perhaps.

He glanced at Kushina’s child again and thought of her hospitalisations as a child; the starvation, the neglect, the lice she had – her inability to read as a child, the fact that Teuchi was the only person bold enough to feed her. _No_ , he decided. _Konoha had a darker moment to come_.

The Uzumaki jinchuuriki should have been revered. Mito was respected for it, though she rarely disclosed her status: a fearsome woman in her own right, her mastery of seals unparalleled, she struck fear in his heart even now. Kushina, with her unique chakra chains, was able to subdue the beast with ease, not that anyone truly knew about her status as a jinchuuriki. And now Naruto, the daughter of a great jinchuuriki and the village leader, left burdened with the same beast that took both of her parents away. A child so jaded by the world he sent her away for her protection, and how she had blossomed! He looked at the children now and thought of the branches that made the great tree that Konoha was. These children were the future of the Leaf. He could not allow the Uzumaki special privileges, and yet…

Perhaps a festival. He could mark both of Konoha’s darkest moments in a festival. _These people have forgotten the way of shinobi_ , he mused. The civilian council was a constant thorn in his side, emboldened by the loss of the jinchuuriki that they now felt they had _any_ right to criticise his decision to integrate her family. _They have forgotten who has the power. And the world has forgotten that Uzushio had the most power of all_.

Hiruzen watched as more children flushed through Naruto’s sealing system, plans formulating in his mind. He would need the mind of Nara Shikaku before he moved his pieces into place, but he had no doubt he could elevate the Uzumaki to a status akin to the Inuzuka before the week was done – mind, they did have to pass the rigorous T & I protocols, which might be unlikely for the older generation.

_“They haven’t forgotten,” Hiroyuki said, summoned through Jiraiya’s toad summons. He took up the Hokage’s office like he owned it, his crop of red hair pulled upwards into a knot. His eyes danced with mischief, his permanent smile pulled even higher by the mirth he felt. “But I will be damned if they let this ruin our reunion, Hokage-san.” And **oh** , wasn’t that disrespectful? _

_Hiruzen merely smiled, stuffing more tobacco into his pipe as he assessed the Uzukage. “I have no doubt you will keep them in line, Uzumaki-san,” he said, determined to regain the strong bond between Konoha and Uzushio. “Our darkest moment is taught in our ninja Academy. We tell every child how we failed to support you, and how we wear your clan symbol as a show of solidarity. Despite a… Level of protest from the civilian council, I have personally ensured that this legacy cannot be forgotten, and use it to inspire the will of fire in our students.”_

_Hiroyuki sat down, red eyebrows raised. “Civilian council,” he repeated incredulously. “You’re soft, old man. A ninja village is a dictatorship.”_

_Hiruzen held up his hand, his gaze hardened at the insult. “Do not assume to know my village, Uzumaki-san.”_

_“Apologies, Hokage-san,” Hiroyuki said easily, tilting his head like a viper. “But even you must know civilians have no place speaking on our activities. They’re soft. They don’t understand. Take Naruto, for example: they don’t understand the complexities of the seal, they look at her and see a demon reincarnated. Only your ninja understand your way. I cannot come in and presume to know things, but every single person we bring here will be trained in some sense of the shinobi arts. Even our ‘civilians’ can wield a sword and fight at a low-chuunin level. By letting our civilians grow soft, we lost many of them. They ran and cowered. They were slaughtered for their soft bellies, even though they nothing of the ninja that worked alongside them.”_

_The moment was still, Hiroyuki’s words hanging in the air like a veil ready to be lifted. “… What do you propose? I would be a fool to ignore the words of the former Uzukage.”_

_Hiroyuki smiled again. “I propose a change to your system, Hokage-sama. Us Uzumaki will be ready to fall for Konoha as we once fell for Uzushio, but I cannot tolerate the disrespect aimed at my granddaughter any longer. When Naruto is made a chuunin, reveal her identity as Minato-chan’s daughter. As **Kushina’s** daughter. As a jinchuuriki. And reveal us,” Hiroyuki hastened to add, seeing Hiruzen begin to protest. “For now, for our probation period, we can hide. We can blend in. And when your jinchuuriki is ready to rise, make sure she rises higher than any child has before. I say this not as her grandfather, but as a survivor of war. Show the world that the Uzumaki survived the acts of Kiri and Iwa, show the world your Fourth’s daughter. Konoha will burn brightly.”_

_“You think like a war council,” Hiruzen chided gently. “That would be a power imbalance the Elemental Nations couldn’t handle. With Konoha as the figurehead of their hate – “_

_“With Akatsuki on the rise,” Hiroyuki implored, leaning forward. There was a vulnerability to the man Hiruzen could never relate to a leader, and yet Minato shared that valuable quality too. “A united enemy for each Hidden Village. A common goal: to maintain the balance. Our seals could be adapted, traded, worked on. We can spend our probation working on the balance, on peace treaties. A mass Chuunin Exams where all nations could send their finest. An understanding that there is one enemy: the men working to take the bijuu and create the Juubi.”_

_“Naruto would be in danger,” Hiruzen pointed out, not unkindly. “And the Kyuubi is incomplete. Minato took half of it to the gut of Death itself. If it were discovered that she wasn’t the container of the complete demon, it would make us a joke.”_

_“A joke?” Hiroyuki scoffed, leaning back and crossing his legs at the ankles. “That girl is in a league of her own. You **ensured** that by giving her to not one, but two Sannin. She’s already in the bingo book. When she is ready to be revealed to the world, we will increase her threat level in the book and there will be over seventy new entries for the revived Uzumaki clan that will rise in support of her. Konoha will be strong, Hiruzen. It will be protected. A united front between Konoha and Uzushio, in acknowledgement of your darkest days – never to be seen again.”_

_“You put a lot of faith in a genin,” The Hokage puffed a small ring of smoke, fingering the pages of his worn bingo book. His eyes drifted to Minato’s picture on the wall. “And I don’t see how this is relevant to the beginning of our discussion.”_

_“Give them something to believe in,” Hiroyuki said with a passion that made his eyes glint with flame. “Give your civilians the knowledge that the Fourth’s legacy **was** Naruto: give them something, old man. Because she’s the only reason Uzushio will remain loyal to Konoha. She is the only thing my elder shinobi believe in. Jiraiya called her the child of a prophecy, a child who is going to break the cycle of hatred in this world. **You** have made her special. You have raised her above your genin. You need to bridge the gap.”_

Which brought him to another issue. Uzumaki Naruto was well on her way to Tokubetsu jonin level due to her seal-craft alone, never mind her speed, stamina, and chakra levels. Tsunade said she made a fantastic front-line medic but lacked the concentration required for wartime. Jiraiya said she had danced with a member of Akatsuki and managed to surprise him long enough to confuse his nerves and tendons. _That isn’t a child any more than I am an old man_ , he thought. _That is a young woman._ No…

No, there was definitely a young woman massaging Naruto’s shoulders. Perhaps she wasn’t young – the Uzumaki were deceptive. She was full with babe, her stomach distended to the point of looking uncomfortable. There were smile lines around her eyes and her eyes looked like the two twins still pumping chakra into one of the most uncomfortable seal arrays he had ever clapped eyes on. “Hm?” he asked.

“S-sorry, Hokage-sama,” the woman stammered immediately, stooping into an odd curtsey. _Civilian_ , his mind said, and yet. “Thank you so much for graciously allowing us a home.”

 _Home. Bridging the gap._ Hiruzen offered her a gentle smile and inclined his head. “You will, of course, be sent to the T & I department,” he said, somewhat regretfully. “And I cannot confirm that you will be able to settle into a home tonight.”

“The children, though?” the woman asked with hope, eyes glinting in a way that suggested that she wasn’t a civilian at all; a strategist, perhaps, someone moving pieces into places with her words, her eyes flitting past him as though she knew every move he could make and dismissing him as a non-threat. He would have to get her to meet Nara Shikaku. “The babies cannot be expected to stay there all night.”

“And that is why we are starting early,” Hiruzen countered with a smile. “So that our genin teams can collect the children and take them home. Naruto has chosen not to have additional help once the children are settled.”

“Naruto-san?” the woman asked with surprise. “Why…?”

“I can just use clones, Kasumi-san,” Naruto glanced up at her with a rueful smile. “The children won’t be able to leave the compound until there is appropriate adult supervision, and Hiroyuki-jii won’t be here for many days.”

“So they’ll be trapped for over a week?” Kasumi asked with a raised eyebrow. Hiruzen could see the cogs turning in her brain at the destruction this might cause.

“If anything happens to those travelling, the children must be kept safe,” Hiruzen said before Naruto could respond. “And they will be safest in the Uzumaki compound with Uzumaki Naruto as their defender.”

Kasumi gazed at him, her mouth pressed into a hard line. She disagreed with him, and yet she had no choice but to agree. It was the most sensible choice. “And Naruto won’t be alone, Kasumi-san, she’ll have you.” He smiled at her, not wholly sure it would make her settle now. “Do you feel well from the journey? I can’t imagine what this does to the child you’re carrying.”

“I feel fine,” she said with a small pout. “But this mode of transportation is harmless. When will we be taken to your interrogation department?”

“When everyone has come through,” Naruto said with a grunt, gesturing for Anko and Genji to take over from the two children. They were nearly done. Two more batches of ten followed by the remaining ones.

“You’re doing well, Naruto-san,” Kasumi said respectfully, head-counting the children. Sixty-nine of their children with no signs of stopping, each one as she remembered when they whisked through the ‘portal’ just mere minutes ago.

Naruto glanced up again and grinned. "Thank you," she said, accepting the compliment. "How are you?"

"I'm well," she said, kneeling beside her, her pregnant belly getting in the way somewhat. "And while I know you don't me very well, I really am - no, _we_ are really grateful for your efforts. Will you be staying?"

"No," Naruto said, shaking her head. "Most likely not. Jiraiya still has things left to teach me."


	14. Interrogations

The children had, unsurprisingly, passed the interrogations with flying colours, even the older children. Hiruzen had tasked Naruto, Hatake Kakashi and his own son, Asuma, to assess their skills in battle. Naruto had limited to them four-year olds and over, where Hiruzen was going to request them above seven. Naruto had given him a secretive little smile and informed him he _must_ test the younger children too.

The resultant analysis left him shame faced. The six four-year olds displayed a competency of those in Year Two of the Konoha Academy. The two five-year olds were at the same level, though they were ‘civilian’ children. The twelve six-year olds tested at Year Four of the Academy, putting them three years below graduation age. However, that wasn’t strict: four of them excelled in Taijutsu, putting them _at_ graduation age with their understanding of both Konohan and Uzushian ninjutsu, three of them so proficient in sealing that Asuma recommended they be put in a trap-making class that _didn’t_ _exist at_ _such a high level_. _How have we fallen so low?_ Hiruzen mourned, scanning the rest of the names. Overall, they had recommended seventy-two of the children to graduate the Academy immediately and be put into active duty, ages ranging from six up to eleven.

They had even recommended twelve children to take the Chuunin Exams alongside Naruto, though he was loathed to do that given the political climate they were in.

He gazed down at their individual profiles, ordered based on age, and audibly groaned. With their shinobi out recovering the Uzumaki caravan of adults, he could do with the support of the children to support genin teams out in the field, but he didn’t _have_ ten jounin-level shinobi ready to go as jounin-sensei. He would only put the older children into teams and put the others straight into the Academy, which meant they would graduate with the other children when he had jounin to spare on their tutelage. He had Tokubetsu jounin, such as Anko, but… _No._ He would recall retired shinobi. The Uzumaki children wouldn’t be allowed loose into other villages until the world was aware of their existence, which would give him plenty of time to ensure their jounin teachers were capable of being a sensei.

With an unwavering hand, he began crafting teams and pairing them with the appropriate team leaders, before sending out a summons for everyone involved to meet at Training Ground Seven.

Within thirty minutes all of those requested had arrived at the training grounds, Naruto leading the hoard of thirty children with a worried look on her face. She was dressed in civilian clothes, though the Hokage noted the various concealed weapons about her person. The children – _no, the genin_ – were dressed for battle. With a gentle smile, he raised his hands to quell the noise. “I’m sure you have questions for why I have brought you here today, comrades,” he said with authority. “And the simple answer is you are being put back into duty as the jounin sensei of our newest genin of Konoha and Uzushio.”

Hyuuga Naoko stepped forward, his lilac eyes betraying his surprise. “An honour,” he said humbly, bowing his head. “But I was – we were retired for a reason, Hokage-sama.”

“I have reviewed the mission reports and the medical files before I decided on you,” the Hokage said, lessening some of the tension in his jounin. “And believe me when I say this was a choice I didn’t make gently. We have gained an entire clan, a clan we believed to be extinct, and it is our duty to make sure they receive the best teachers for their abilities. All of you have some proficiency in sealing. All of you are strong and capable of controlling your chakra to an exceptional degree. These children need you, and I hope you both bond. Naruto?”

Naruto looked uncharacteristically _nervous_. The children, however, were bustling with excitement, so he was sure he hadn’t committed any wrongdoing. _Then again,_ he mused, _she is their age and acting as their mother. Perhaps I have put too much on her shoulders._ “Of course, Hokage-sama,” she said easily, eyes flitting over the ten jounin in front of her. It was obvious she found them lacking from the curl of her lip, though she couldn’t go against direct orders. He would have to Have words with Jiraiya about her attitude — she was too much like her mother for her own good. “Though I must warn you that they’ve been cooped up at home for so long so there’s a lot of excess energy to be burnt. Thank you for having them.” She bowed low, her golden hair falling over her shoulders in a waterfall. _Far too much like her mother_ , he mused. 

“Excellent,” Hiruzen said with another smile. “Dismissed, Naruto.” Naruto disappeared in a plume of smoke. _A shadow clone for audience with me_ , he thought with an indulgent smile. The cheek of youth! “Team twelve will be…”

* * *

The interrogation of the adults took longer. It took two weeks for them to ascertain who harboured too much resentment to go ‘free’, and then came the issue of how to keep them controlled.

It was Naruto who created the seal, and it was to be Naruto who administered it.

* * *

Before she administered the seal, Naruto had asked for Tsunade return home. The Hokage was only too pleased to oblige, summoning her with a hawk. It didn't take her long to arrive, and Naruto knew she must have been close anyway. "I'm going to meet Tsunade-sama at the gates," she murmured, pressing a kiss to Megumi's hair, followed by all of the children in the clan. She had to start using clones around the seventh child. "See you later, squad."

"Boss!" they all chirruped, making her laugh.

She left shortly after her clones had finished kissing all of the children, basking in the sun as she walked. She thought of what Hiroyuki had said and theorised on seals, thinking of the Hyuuga brands. She'd heard about them from Hiroyuki, which told her that these seals were _old_ , a tradition that shouldn't exist in their day and age. She wouldn't be like the Hyuuga. She didn't want to brand them at _all_ \- thought of having the demon stuck in her gut fresh from being born, and the brand that followed her around enough to impede on her perception of the place she was born, the place her parents died defending... No, that wouldn't work for her. She didn't want to brand them.

She basked in the warm sun that Konoha always seemed to attract, face turned upwards to catch it in all of its glory. 

She missed it, though.

Despite the heartache and pain, a deep, yearning part of her _missed_ her home. Despite the fact they were always scheming ( _but it's a military dictatorship_ ), despite the lies ( _my name, my name, my name_ ) - she loved it. Loved the smell of grass in the mornings, missed the way the streets would be busy from early morn to late evening most days, missed the training grounds where she could watch, steal, and plan.

So lost in her thoughts, she didn't realise she'd taken a detour until she was gazing up at her apartment building.

Former apartment building?

It had been renovated. 

No longer did the exterior look like a big, concrete prison cell, but rather children had painted where they could, the rest of it painted a cool white. The doors were repaired, the glass panes showing her reflection: and staring back at her was a six year old girl, blonde hair in jagged tufts and cut short. She could see why she got called tomato, her face transposing over the girls' face.

She lifted her hand in a wave, and the child waved back, a big grin splitting across her pale skin. The child turned and ran, and Naruto watched as she disappeared into the labyrinth of the apartment block. 

_Things have changed_ , she thought, swallowing tightly. She glanced up, up, up - and her penthouse room had been taken over too, green trails of succulents trailing over the fenced balcony. And yet it was still the red-light district.

That, too, had changed. Things were cleaner. The streets were swept every night, no begging children to pickpocket her worldly goods, and no women in the windows selling their bodies. Instead they were disguised as “massage parlours”, with a steady stream of men pushed through their doors. 

Naruto smiled, swallowed the lump in her throat, and carried on, winding her way through streets that had changed so, so much - and she'd changed too, no longer felt alien in her skin, no longer felt like she was screaming at the world. Knew that she was different, knew that she was _better_ than the "demon child" she was when she left.

She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment, and then opening them with a fresh perspective. 

Konoha was thriving. She knew people she'd graduated with were chuunin now, that there was a fresh generation of rookies being churned through the system, and when they graduated, she would finally receive her genin team - or an apprenticeship within the village, dependent on what materialised first.

"Naruto!" Shizune called, waving at her. Naruto glanced over, and then she smiled, rushing over to the pair. "You've grown so tall!" Shizune said, eyes growing damp as she pulled the girl into a hug. "Those nutrition pills are working a treat!"

"Stop blustering over her," Tsunade sighed, pulling them both close and smiling down at the teen in front of her. Well - she was eleven, but she looked like a teen now, so two years or so didn't matter. "Give her some air, Shizune."

"Shizune, Tsunade-sama," Naruto said politely. "I've missed you both so much. Thank you for coming on such short notice."

"Yes," Tsunade's brow furrowed. "Jiraiya said you had news. Big news."

Before Naruto could even begin, they were interrupted.

"Tsunade-chan!" Hiroyuki's voice parted crowds, and Tsunade span on her heel. "You've grown so tall! Look at you! You've got a look of your mother, haven't you?" Naruto was surprised to see him in Konoha fashion, but she did suppose the Uzushio garb he wore was outdated now. She was amused to see a small hoard of red-headed children at his back. 

"What." Tsunade said flatly, turning back to Naruto. "No. It's impossible."

Naruto shook her head with a cheeky smile. "Jiraiya let us go to Uzushio," she burst out, taking Tsunade's hand, and then Shizune's. "The whirlpools sucked me in and threw me out on the beach, where there was a crowd of Uzumaki waiting. A crowd. There's over three-hundred in - and on their way to - Konoha."

"I feel sick," Shizune said, pressing a hand to her stomach. Ton-Ton snorted up at her. 

"And why didn't you contact us?" Tsunade asked, and Naruto faltered, eyes wide. 

"Because-" she started, but Tsunade held up her hand. 

"Not you," she said firmly, settling a loaded gaze on Hiroyuki. "You. Why didn't you contact the village?"

"Is this really the place for this?" he asked, a friendly smile on his face but an undercurrent of ice underneath.

"Better place as any," Tsunade said, just as unkindly. Naruto wanted to interject, wanted to say _that's my grandfather_ , but held her tongue.

Tsunade had lived through it. Naruto was just a by-product of the fall of Uzushio, the daughter of the child who got sent away. It wasn't her place to interject, so she shushed, closed her mouth, and watched. 

"Why would I?" Hiroyuki asked, opening his hands up and gesturing to the hustle and bustle of the town. "We were left to die."

Tsunade nodded once, sharply, and held out her hand. Hiroyuki took it. "Welcome to Konoha," Tsunade said. "The village of crushed hopes and dreams."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune admonished, making Naruto giggle now that the tension had dissipated. "Honestly, your tongue is going to get us arrested!"

"Would you like a drink?" Hiroyuki asked with a warmer smile, the tension in his shoulders waning. "Naruto-chan can take these rapscallions off my back - they won't leave me alone!"

"Of course," Tsunade agreed. "Shizune can help."

And that was how Shizune and Naruto ended up with an army of children touring the village.

* * *

"You really should be dead," Tsunade said, taking a sip of the tea Hiroyuki ordered. It was cinnamon and orange peel, which was quite exotic for a lady who's favourite drink was sake. "But I assume Naruto is absolutely overjoyed having you all come here. What do you think of the seals?"

Hiroyuki let out a low sigh, warming his hands on the cup. _I hate the idea_ , he thought, but this was a woman powerful enough, physically, politically and emotionally, to become the Hokage after the Sandaime. _The man is fit to retire, and yet she won't take the hat_. He dreamt of being crowned the Hokage given his existing skill as Uzukage: but between the political tension between himself and the Konoha council, there was no _way_ they would ever consider it. 

They had used Uzumaki Mito, not a ninja but a _Princess_ of the Whirlpool, as a political pawn. And they had let _Mito's_ village get destroyed, after she sealed a Tailed Beast for them, after she sealed _all_ the Tailed Beasts for them-- and yet they had a Naruto, now, a girl who was the culmination of the forgotten ties of Uzushio and Konoha, the weaponised Uzumaki who - god willing - wasn't interested in staying in Konoha.

But he could see it in the way Senju Tsunade interacted with his great-granddaughter: the love, the touches, the _smiles_ , and thought - _this might be a woman to trust yet._

"I think they're archaic and barbaric," he said finally, throwing caution to the wind. "And I think that the council know exactly what they're doing when they're telling Naruto to do it. Stew up tension between the clan members and the clan heir, so she loses standing in the clan. They forget what Uzushio was."

"And what was Uzushio?" she asked, ordering some sweet buns to the table. There was an edge to her tone, a _gleam_ in her eye that told him all: _she agreed with him_.

"A dynasty and a shinobi village in one," Hiroyuki confirmed for her. "Naruto is the reigning clan Princess and clan heir in one, something that Kushina was when the main branch family was felled. By then they'd stuck the Kyuubi in her, so she couldn't return even if she wanted to see what remained of her home. I tried, gods, I tried. Wanted to send a message to her, get her to come back... But we were too weak, and then when we _did_ send a letter - we got no reply. I know now it was because my granddaughter was dead. Naruto, as _her_ daughter, as matrilineal succession, has their loyalty because that is the way of Uzushio. From my research, I still can't find records of a female Kage, and yet our most famous Kage was a woman - the world doesn't care for matrilineal succession, but we do, and Naruto is our Princess and heir as a result of it."

Tsunade had a moment of reflection, her silence stretching on for minutes. Hiroyuki's words were hanging in the air like a heavy weight pressing down on their shoulders. "Why come here?" she asked in a quiet tone, communicating in a tongue, an accent, that he had not heard in a long time. His eyes widened. 

"Mito taught you," he responded in kind, quietly surprised. The Uzushio dialect was old, sounding like a foreign tongue to those untrained in it. There was only him who recalled the twisting words, the lilting pronunciation: it had died when they were attacked, and he had thought he would never hear it again. "We came because it was better than being trapped on our tiny island. We couldn't enter the main village for fear of stepping on the dead."

Tsunade's eyes fluttered closed, a silent prayer on her lips. "I am with the leaves, but there is still a yearning for the sea," she whispered, and Hiroyuki could see her age in her eyes. "Naruto... They gave her to me to trap me here, yes, but they gave her to me - _Hiruzen_ gave her to me because we both needed someone."

"Hiruzen is operating outside of the council," he said, and she nodded, throwing a furtive glance around the small cafe. "So Hiruzen is my ally."

"But he is a dictator nevertheless, and you need to remember that. This village... This village isn't what my family died for, it isn't what my loves died for - it's corrupted. They abused a young girl for being a Sacrifice, and yet my family gained world _peace_ with Sacrifices." She plucked off a piece of the sweet bun and started to pull it to pieces, Hiroyuki taking one big, uncouth bite of his. "He wants me to be the next Hokage by the time the Chuunin exams are in Konoha, which means I can change my council and advisors."

She paused, and Hiroyuki grimaced.

"You're going to be on it." she decided, pointing a finger at him. "And we're going to change this godforsaken village once and for all."

"For Uzumaki Mito," Hiroyuki grumbled, raising his mug. 

"For Uzumaki Mito," Tsunade agreed, clinking their drinks together. 

* * *

“It’s a chakra suppression seal that, according to Hiroyuki-jii and Jiraiya, shouldn’t be broken,” she said, her tone uncertain and _young_. “Though Hiroyuki-jii says… It might create tension. Like the Hyuuga.”

“We simply cannot have people fighting in our ranks who wouldn’t be willing to fight with us,” Tsunade said, even though she would be leaving the village the moment she could. She had to say what Naruto wanted to hear, had to speak like she didn't know every thought running through the girl's head. “As Clan Head, you should make that decision, Naruto. Not Hiroyuki-san, not Hokage-sama… _you_.”

“What do I do?” Naruto asked quietly. “What _can_ I do? I can’t tell them their feelings are unjustified: we know they’re not. Reparations have been made by allowing them entrance to the village, and somehow that is _enough_? They were left to die like _pigs_.”

Tsunade smiled, looking her age in that moment. “Demand more,” she said softly. “Demand that these seals only be used for a month; demand that they get the same freedom offered to other clans; demand – “

“I _can’t_ ,” Naruto cried, shaking her head. “They _hate me_. The council would never let me stand and speak – no, the shinobi council would, but the civilian council… Will the civilian council be involved?”

“Most likely not,” Tsunade said, standing up and moving to Naruto’s side, pulling her long hair back and beginning to braid it. “As the ‘civilian’ Uzumaki have agreed to be placed at genin level, or chuunin if they prove themselves when battling. However, the old fart doesn’t know what to do about placing the Uzumaki into ranks – they can’t have too many jounin out of action to test them. Jiraiya and I have been informed it might be down to us.”

“Oh god,” Naruto laughed wetly, her eyes suspiciously damp with tears. “It isn’t a civilian council matter, so I will insist as the Fourth Hokage’s child and the heir to the Uzumaki clan that this is a shinobi matter.”

Tsunade hummed. “So long as you only admit that to the honourable elders, that should work,” she said. “Though you don’t want to come onto Danzo’s radar. He’s already angry at the old man for sending you away.”

“What do I do?” Naruto whispered.

“Fight back.” Tsunade tugged on the end of the finished braid. “You’re Uzumaki Naruto, number one badass Kunoichi of your graduating class. Have you forgotten that?”

“No,” Naruto said with a stubborn curl appearing at her lips, eyes sparkling with mischief. “And it’ll be the best prank _ever_.”

"Remember what we discussed, Naruto," Tsunade said, poking Naruto on her own Seal of One Hundred. It had changed from purple to a deep blue. "Remember that this village doesn't want what's best for you. It's a dictatorship. And if you want to be the Hokage... _Dictate."_


	15. The Meeting

The meeting rolled around far faster than Naruto would have liked, though Hiroyuki had accompanied her along with Fumiko. She was wearing her usual attire, though she was missing her weapons as a sign of trust and humility. Fumiko had no such reservations, dressed in a battle kimono with wide, billowing sleeves, weapons packed away to the nines.

Naruto paced outside the door, sensing both civilians and shinobi. She would be grilled by both, and she knew the civilian council detested her very name. There had already been petitions against her clan, shop owners refusing to trade wears to anyone with red hair, trying to overcharge for groceries, and she had transformed into a random civilian to be served Ichiraku Ramen in peace.

With a stern, “Enter!” the Hokage allowed them into the room, Naruto making her way to the end of the table. The people in the room were all staring at her, some with warmth, some with distrust, and many civilians with hatred.

She controlled her emotions as best as she could, Hiroyuki a comforting presence at her side as she clocked the big voices in the room: the elders, the clan heads, and on a minor level, the civilians.

“Uzumaki Naruto,” Hiruzen said, far better at masking his emotions. Naruto was almost shocked by the lack of warmth to his tone. “This meeting has been pushed back as much as possible, but we must finally discuss the Uzumaki clan within Konoha and what we do with those who failed our interrogation checks. To begin, the shinobi and civilian council will ask questions, followed by your own statement on the matter.”

“With all due respect, Hokage-sama,” Naruto said in a firm tone, refusing to sit. “I refuse to answer to the civilian council, as my clan is a ninja clan that has received nothing but prejudice despite your assertions that we will be welcomed as a collective. Already I can spy Kobayashi-san glaring at me, who has refused to serve four members of my clan, as well as two red-haired civilians unrelated to us. I can see four members of the civilian council who have spread lies about my family, and I can see that even now, one of your Honourable Elders won’t even give me the courtesy of looking at me. _I_ ,” Naruto flared her chakra like a beacon, eyes narrowing as she focused as much of her chakra on Shimura Danzo, “ _Warrant_ respect as the Uzumaki Clan Head, and thus far it has been an uncomfortable and hostile time for my clan.”

Naruto paused, glaring at Danzo as he finally turned his attention to her. His expression was full of greed. “I do wonder why my clan experiences this hostility when the First Hokage’s wife, Uzumaki Mito, was from the Uzumaki clan - as was the Fourth Hokage’s wife, my mother, Uzumaki Kushina.”

Hiruzen tried not to smile, fingers twitching as he controlled his emotions. “From this, do you believe that the civilian council have no stake here?” he said above the pandemonium that erupted. Naruto’s open claim to the Fourth Hokage had thrown a spanner in his introduction of the child to the Shinobi world, but with Hiroyuki’s cool stance he remembered why the Uzumaki were feared and loved.

“I firmly believe the civilian council are corrupt and misguided of their role in a shinobi village, which has, and always will be, a military dictatorship,” Naruto said brazenly, copying what Hiroyuki had written for her to a T. “And I firmly believe that when it pertains to shinobi matters, the civilian council should never be able to speak. They do not understand the intricacies of sealing a Tailed Beast, the main source of their anger towards me, and they undermine the capabilities of their ‘beloved’ Fourth Hokage by treating his only child like a plague.”

“Lies!” Kobayashi cried out, red-faced. His eyes were enraged, flitting between the picture of the Fourth Hokage hung on the wall and the demon brat he refused to serve. “You have no proof that you are the child of the Fourth, and I cannot believe you let the demon speak such _lies_ , Hokage-sama!”

“And yet,” Fumiko said with a quiet anger, “He is letting her speak. What does this tell you? This tells you that your Hokage knows the truth and acknowledges Naruto-chan’s claim as truth. She is the daughter of the Yellow Flash and the former Clan Heiress, Uzumaki Kushina, the former tenant of the Nine-Tailed Fox.” Fumiko commanded the room with ease, her grace unparallel. Naruto felt like a mulish child next to her. “The reason you hate Naruto is the reason you respected Uzumaki Mito, is the reason Uzumaki Kushina was so feared – because she contains the Kyuubi. You hate our clan and _left us to die_. You treat us like lepers on your streets. Naruto may be small, but she is mighty – and she has the full backing of our clan to exert _our_ will as _she_ sees fit.” Fumiko raised her arm, unravelling the bandages she wrapped around it. Her muscles pulsed, the skin half-healed as it always would be. She spotted some of the ninja clan heads looking queasy. “This is what it means to be a ninja. You, a civilian, have no concept of the world outside of this village, but we do; Naruto does. _Any village would take us_. We are here solely out of loyalty to Naruto, but we will **take** her back to Uzushio if you will not accept us.”

“To lose our only jinchuuriki would be a fool’s move,” Nara Shikaku spoke up, shaking his head. Naruto nearly flinched, Tsunade's words flashing through her brain again: _a weapon, a tool, a thing to use and abuse for the sake of the village._ “Troublesome… I vote for removing the civilian council from the room and talking to our newest clan with the respect they deserve.”

Inuzuka Tsume barked out an agreement, still fixated on the Uzumaki woman’s arm. “We have more to gain than we do to lose by removing the civilian council,” she agreed in a no-nonsense tone. “And this dick is always selling us shite that our pups won’t eat at the cost price of gourmet meat. Yeah, we've fuckin' noticed!"

“All in agreement, say aye,” Hiruzen said with a calm smile. Unsurprisingly, every ninja head said aye. “Then we are in agreement. The civilian council will have nothing more to do with shinobi matters unless they themselves choose to educate themselves in our world. We live to protect them, but here we are… Turning the Uzumaki away.”

“Now wait here,” Kobayashi said with a scowl, eyes flicking over his fellow civilian council members. The demon brat had successfully made them believe she was related to the Fourth Hokage. Well, he knew better. “The _girl_ hasn’t been here for weeks, and I prefer it that way. The village is calmer. I propose we send her away until she’s ‘trained’ enough not to unleash the beast on us.”

“I’ll show you a beast!” Hiroyuki snapped, moving forward and drawing his blade to cut the man in two.

“Hiroyuki-jii,” Naruto’s voice stopped him. She sounded so young, so weary, so _tired_. His anger fizzled like a light. “It’s okay. I will be returning on my training trip with Jiraiya-sama to learn to control my temper and the demon. I will let my clan settle without me, so that they may finally get the respect they deserve. But rest assured, Kobayashi-san,” Naruto’s expression was blank, wiped away like a Hunter-nin donning their white masks. “My clan will not make your life easy. I can assure you that you will be out of business within a month. And when the whole world knows who I am and who my parents are, you will be a sad, miserable street urchin… Just like me.”

* * *

"I refuse." Naruto said forcefully, baring her teeth at Danzo. "You are _not_ taking _any_ Uzumaki children for ROOT, and if we spot _any_ of your nasty little soldiers near our children, I will let Kyuubi loose and let him _raze_ the village to the ground!"

The Inuzuka clan head raised her cup of tea. "Hear hear!" she roared. "Same goes for the Inuzuka - don't think I haven't noticed you sniffing around my Kiba! Fuck off!"

"And Shikamaru," Shikaku agreed in a cold tone, his anger palpable, and yet Naruto got the sense that this was a show, his anger ungenuine, and his word's calculated. "I do wonder what the vested interest is in clan children. It's concerning."

"And are we not _concerned_ she threatened to unleash the beast?" Danzo said, barely twitching at the accusations. Naruto wondered how people _knew_ about ROOT, how they comprehended its existence: but these were Clan Heads at the breast of the Hokage, so she assumed - well, she assumed the heart of manipulation ran deep, Clan Head's told to _accept_ , to _give in_ , for both ninja and ROOT soldiers worked for the same purpose: for the glory of their fatherland, and if ROOT soldiers with their dead eyes and false names and sealed tongues did the _dirty work_ , did the _hard_ work - the _mentally scarring_ work, it meant clan children lived that little bit longer. 

"Are we not _concerned_ that a _child_ is threatening to burn the village down?"

And, well, _yes_ , Naruto _had_ said that, shook from her introspection so frighteningly that her thoughts burned. "Bold of you to assume I need Kyuubi's help to do it," she spat back, hot _rage_ coursing through her, digging her nails into the wooden table. "All I need to activate the decade-old Uzumaki seals protecting this village and trap you all in while you _burn._ " In her head she saw those three little girls being taken, thought of all the little children being swept into Shimura Danzo's awaiting arms, and the rage burned hotter, brighter.

"What Naruto-chan means is stay away from our children," Fumiko said smoothly, placing a gentle handle on the girls' fists. "Or we will hunt you down like the dog you are, and you will discover why Kirigakure tried to wipe us out." She smiled so, _so_ gently, that Naruto almost felt like she was receiving _praise._ "After all," she added, leaning back. "Kushina-chan's temper was notorious. You cannot blame her daughter for possessing the same temper, not when her father sealed the beast inside of her to protect the village... And the village starved her to the point she needed special pills to grow properly. I wouldn't be surprised if Kushina's ghost was in this very room egging her child on, Mito too."

"That's none of my business," Danzo sniped, scowling now. Mind, every expression looked like a scowl, so Naruto wasn't sure if it was a significant thing or not.

"No?" Fumiko said, surprised. "The man with his finger in so many pies knows nothing about the whispers making their way to the civilians on the night of October Tenth? You can't be a very good shadow-master if you know nothing of these rumours, Danzo-san."

"Terrible," Tsume agreed, smiling like the wolf she was, "For a man so highly regarded by our own Hokage to not know what started those rumours."

"I don't like what you're accusing me of," Danzo said, and there it was: the cold, calculated tone Naruto expected, with an undercurrent of **steel**. "And I shan't entertain these petty squabbles any longer. No clan children will be brought into ROOT."

"Good," the Hokage said, lacing his fingers together. "Now we must get onto the topic of the sealing of those Uzumaki who cannot give us their loyalty."

"Yes," Naruto agreed. "My proposal is this: we refuse to brand our clan members like the Hyuuga Branch Members, and we refuse to brand them at all--"

"Now see here," Danzo started.

" _Because_ ," Naruto said loudly, talking over him. "Because - are we not fostering more bad blood by branding them with a kill switch? Surely freedom, something that Konoha advocates in its civilians, is a better way of ensuring loyalty than a brand?"

Silence. 

"An interesting concept," Shikaku murmured, eyes narrowed, fingers held in a peculiar position Naruto couldn't identify. "Though I can't see it going well if they choose to defect - what happens if they do?"

"They return to Uzushio," Fumiko said warmly. "They go home. It wasn't Konoha who attacked us, and their resentment won't be aimed here. But if -- for whatever reason -- they decide to leave, to go home, they go without hunters, they leave."

"And our secrets?" Danzo asked, scowling still. "Our secrets that they will take with them to sell to our enemies?"

"Secrets?" Fumiko tittered, shaking her head. "You're a fool if you truly think your village has any secrets - again, I want to direct your attention to the night of Naruto's birth: she loses her mother, her father, and gains the Kyuubi in her gut. Now, I find it suspicious that the only secret revealed to your population is Naruto's status as a Sacrifice. Her parentage? Forgotten. Has everyone forgotten Uzumaki Kushina?" Fumiko smiled, a cold and brittle thing, and leant forward. "Your secrets are not as well hidden as you seem to think. Naruto has even informed us that Uchiha Itachi, a loving heir to the Uchiha clan, has gone rogue and murdered his family. Tell me - where is the acting clan head now? Why is the little Uchiha excluded from these meetings?"

She paused. "Where was Naruto's invite as acting clan head of the Uzumaki clan, a clan with a _compound_ here in Konoha? Where is the Hatake clan head? The Senju clan head? Where is the acting Sarutobi clan head? I think this meeting was doomed from the very beginning, and I think you are wrong to turn us away."

"There is more to be gained here," Hiroyuki said, inclining his head at the Inuzuka head. Naruto noticed how everyone seemed to stiffen to attention, even the Hokage, as the old man spoke. "This is Naruto's family, yes, but it is mine moreso. I have watched my family grow from the ashes that Kiri and Kumo brought to our shores, and I have watched my family die. If I deem them a threat, they will be sent back to Uzushio. A ninja village is a dictatorship, and so I ask this of you, Third Hokage of Konohagakure: can you lose your jinchuuriki?"

Hiruzen stared back, an easy smile on his lips at the bold threat. "We cannot," he said, glancing fondly at the jinchuuriki in question. "Minato's daughter is our ultimate Sacrifice, a child who can control their chakra and do as her village commands. Minato's child - Kushina's child is our ultimate weapon."

"So I ask you all," Hiroyuki said, lips twitched into a macabre mockery of a smile - and yet it looked more like a baring of teeth, a wolf's snarl, "Can you afford to turn us away? Or would you rather watch your village burn as we watched ours? After all," And Hiroyuki stood now, all six foot of him curling over the round table as he placed his scarred, gnarled hands by Danzo's folded ones. "Secrets have a - a way of getting away from us, don't they?" Hiroyuki stared into the one of Danzo, and Danzo stared flatly back, "And I am _sure_ people would be interested in Konoha losing its jinchuuriki, left with no protection whatsoever. Who do you think would strike first?"

Hiroyuki turned his face to the Hokage, the atmosphere so tense Naruto was sure she could cut it with a knife. "Can you afford to turn us away?" he asked again.

Nobody had a rebuttal.

* * *

"They agreed," Naruto said later that evening, curled up between Tsunade and Shizune in their hotel room. "I'll be leaving tomorrow to resume the remainder of my training trip as per the civilian council's request, but there was a majority agreement to refuse to brand Uzumaki clan members and give them a three-hour head start back to Uzushio before hunter-nin are sent after them should they choose to leave."

Shizune pressed a kiss to Naruto's hair and whispered, "Clever girl."

"And Danzo?" Tsunade murmured, a pleasant buzz from the sake making her cheeks pink and her eyes heavy. "That old bastard wanted you, you know. Probably wanted you to agree to be his little ROOT soldier for that."

"I threatened to burn the village down," Naruto said, a glint in her eye that make Tsunade laugh.

"You?" she scoffed. "You would never let this village burn. Guess they don't know that, though."

"They took me seriously after that," she said, absolutely delighted. "Though I'm surprised I didn't get arrested for treason."

"Hiruzen is getting braver and smarter against the manipulations of his council, but he still has a soft spot for Danzo," Tsunade grunted, Shizune nodding beside her. "And I don't know a man alive who isn't struck dumb by your love." Tsunade paused, swallowed, and muttered, "I'm proud of you, kid."

"Me too," Shizune whispered, combing her fingers through Naruto's hair. "I can't imagine how hard it must have been."

Naruto thought _it was_ , but she was a good ninja first and a child second, so she just smiled.

* * *

"The seal holds strong on the child," the cloaked man murmured, and the other person tittered. "He will wish to be informed."

"He will," the person murmured, dark eyes glinting in the firelight. "And he will be pleased with us."

"The clan complicate matters." There was the slick _swoosh_ of a brush, the _snick_ of a scroll being unfurled, and then a cough.

"The clan complicate many things," the person agreed. "But he will find a way."

"And the other half of the beast?" 

"Summon the Fourth and you summon the beast." The person sounded tired, as though they had this conversation numerous times.

"What part does the child possess?"

And _oh,_ that was a new question. "The beast," the cloaked man said with a wicked grin. "The _power_."

"We need both." 

" _Yes_ ," the cloaked man sighed. "The child has the Yang. We need both."

They needed both.

* * *

“You _can’t_ go, onee-chan!” one of the children cried, tugging on her arm. Naruto was awful with names. She suspected this child could be related to Kumi, but the Uzumaki clan faded into just that: the clan. They were one, a hive buzzing around the queen bee.

A cacophony of childish cries assaulted her now that one child had voiced their opinion. She glanced pleadingly at Hiroyuki-jii, but he too had a mournful look on his face.

If she was being honest, she wanted to leave. Having a family was suffocating. It was coping with hundreds of people with their own personalities in close proximity. It didn’t help that the Uzumaki had bundles of energy, each person so similar that brawls broke out quickly. Admittedly, these brawls didn’t last long – but the dojo no longer resembled what it used to, having been remodelled and repaired over and over as a result of the fighting.

“Now, now,” Naruto said in a soothing tone, quelling the roars of the children. “It won’t be long at all. It’s one year at the most. It won’t be long.”

And how wrong she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto getting that Daenerys edit.


	16. Genin of Konoha

It had been two years. Uzumaki Naruto was still a genin of Konoha at age thirteen, and she was finally returning to join her genin team. Jiraiya was a slave driver, pushing her beyond her limits and then ten foot more. He had made her sign the Toad Summoning Contract, coerced her with sweets and candy, but she couldn’t get to grips with his taijutsu style and that made their training difficult. She made her own abridged version from the scrolls she received every week from Hiroyuki-jii, improving her taijutsu beyond Jiraiya's belief given her difficulty mastering it.

“Jiraiya-sama,” she said respectfully, matching pace as best as she could. Her gravity seals were released, but she still wasn’t… Good enough to match pace with a Sannin. Despite two and a half years, give or take, of training with him, she still couldn’t compare. “We are within two hours of the village. Can we slow down?”

Jiraiya shot her a look and sped up, making her grunt and move faster. She was glad she’d plaited her hair that morning. It usually fell in a thick weft to her lower back, kept in place with her Konoha hitai-ate, but when they travelled she endeavoured to keep it out of the way.

“Fine,” she said at his back, pumping more chakra to her legs and flitting through the branches as though she were a small bird, keeping pace again. “D’ya know who my teammates will be?” she asked hopefully.

“Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura,” Jiraiya said over the sound of her breathing. She was a prodigy just like her father, that much he could admit. “Under Hatake Kakashi. They’ve just lost their teammate in a C-rank mission turned A-rank. S’not going to be the best environment to go into, but that’s the way the world works. You’re gonna’ have to respect their grief. The Haruno girl doesn’t actually want to stay a ninja, but the old man is hoping a new teammate will help turn it around. The Uchiha kid is particularly affected, but… It’ll be okay. He'll be okay.”

Naruto sighed, thinking on her first kill. It had been so long since then. 

She'd changed, and changed again. 

She knew what happened to captured kunoichi. She had heard it all from Tsunade in the beginning.

They travelled the two hours in relative silence, only broken by little grunts and swearwords from Naruto, who was getting tired quick.

When they arrived, the girl was covered in a slick of sweat, her cheeks reddened from the strain. “Good job, brat,” Jiraiya said with a teasing smile, ruffling her dampened hair. “You did good.”

“Damn fucking straight I did,” Naruto shot back, huffing air upwards to cool down her face. In the distance she could see the Hokage striding towards the gates, and then she was off in a flash to hug the man. “Hokage-jii!” she cried, squeezing him around the waist. She had grown. No longer was she at his waist or his chest, she was at his shoulders. He had aged too, like fine wine - more wrinkles, his face more wizened, and browned by the sun.

“Naruto-chan,” he said in that same old voice, gruff with emotion. He pushed her back, looking her up and down. Her skin had darkened more, sun-kissed. Her hair was sun-bleached at the scalp, though he suspected the travel had a role to play. Her headband was worn like a badge of honour, though the Uzushio one around her right arm was new. She had even changed her clothes somewhat, with the orange obi now a pale blue, and her kimono top was replaced by a high-necked skin-tight black top. She wore a jacket like Tsunade’s in white but tucked into the obi, a white skirt panel covering her front and back. Perhaps the black top was in fact an all-body suit, as black material covered her legs up to her knees. “You’ve changed.”

“That’s what people do, jiji,” Naruto giggled, giving him a little spin. “The orange has now completely gone, thanks to Jiraiya telling me I looked ridiculous. I’ve wrote a list of my current skill sets and abilities.” She turned to glance at the other old man in her life. “Jiraiya-sama will probably give you a more accurate account, however. When will I be meeting my new team?”

The Hokage gently guided her alongside him, marvelling in the change of the girl. She had undergone drastic changes before the training trip, but now he barely recognised her. Still holding some fat, she was losing it to the rush of womanhood, and he shuddered to think of what would happen when she gained it elsewhere. The girl was striking. “Jiraiya,” he instructed, and the man fell into step with them. “You will be meeting them immediately. Kakashi-san is eager to meet you, though the other two are… Naruto-chan, they are in mourning. It is the first death of a comrade they have seen. Sasuke-kun is very driven, and Sakura-chan is growing.”

“I know, jiji,” Naruto said, her own tone mournful. “I’ll do my best to respect their dynamics. I assume I’m only there for the Chuunin exams?” She raised one eyebrow at him, and he chuckled. “Gotcha.”

“Not necessarily,” the Hokage chided with the love of a grandfather. “You’d have to be nominated first, Naruto-chan. Jiraiya?”

“I’d easily put her at Chuunin level,” the man said, shaking his head. “Tsunade really did a number on her chakra control, which has been the main push. She needs help with genjutsu. I know you’ve got a specialist in the village.”

“Can’t even recognise them,” Naruto said honestly, furrowing her brow. “But the fox helps with that. He’s gotten a bit more tolerable.”

The Hokage coughed at the unexpected words, a bit taken aback. “We’ll discuss that later,” he decided, giving a dark look to Jiraiya. “For now, enjoy the sights. Hiroyuki-san is currently on a mission, and your fellow clansmen are putting together a… _Small_ party for you.”

And Naruto did, basking in the warmth and the smell of the village. They were attracting some attention from the villagers, but she couldn’t sense hatred towards her. Absence had clearly altered their perceptions of her. Or perhaps it hadn’t – maybe they’d forgotten her! She should be so lucky. The scent of ramen overcame her, and her eyes started to grow a little damp at the thought of her two favourite people running the ramen stand. At one time in her life, she truly thought they were the only people who didn’t detest her (outside of the Hokage). “It’s good to be home,” she whispered, a gentle smile crossing her lips before she let it drop again. “Thank you, Hokage-sama. You have shown me true kindness by making me the apprentice to two esteemed people.” She bowed low at the man, making him pause. “I can never repay such kindness.”

“Naruto-chan, you flatter me,” The Hokage just laughed, shrugging off her gratitude. “Come, child. Your new team awaits.”

Naruto nodded and ran after him, practically racing to get up the tower. When she reached the door to the Hokage’s office she paused, letting the man enter before her. She immediately saw the old man who used to follow her around and who called her a cry-baby. He eye-smiled at her, giving a little jaunty wave. “You!” she cried out, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“Midget,” he greeted in a warm tone of voice. His jounin vest had changed. The Uzumaki spiral had been removed now that it was being claimed by a clan again. “You look taller. Still short though.”

She flushed, glaring at him. She couldn’t help but be fond of him. And he’d… Added another name to the stone, which was really sad. The other two genin looked at her in a mixture of disgust and sadness. “Humph,” she said, crossing her arms. “We can’t all be scarecrows like you, old man. Hello. My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I am incredibly sorry to hear of your loss,” She gazed at both of her new teammates with remorse. “I’m sorry that I’m taking their place.”

“His,” the male grunted, but he seemed to – not soften, because that wasn’t right - Naruto wasn't sure if there was _anything_ soft about the boy, but he seemed to warm to her, almost. There was a profound sense of loss in the air. “His place, Uzumaki-san. I’m Uchiha Sasuke.”

“Haruno Sakura,” the girl said. Naruto got the impression she used to be bubbly, but her pale skin seemed grey and her eyes were red with emotion. “It’s nice to meet you, Naruto-san.”

“Well done kids,” Kakashi praised. “Hokage-sama?”

The Hokage smiled and sat down with a weary sigh, cursing his old bones. “The day off,” he decided in response to Kakashi’s unspoken question. “Get to know one another.”

“Yes,” Kakashi inclined his head and ushered his cute little genin out of the room, plus the new one.

“Bye, Ero-sennin!” Naruto called over her shoulder, wiping a bit of sweat from her forehead. Looks like she wasn’t getting a break. Harsh. “Bye, jiji!”

“Goodbye, Naruto!” Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled and waved, and Sasuke was immediately struck by the familiarity this girl had with the Hokage. Who was she? He narrowed his eyes at her.

“You know one of the Sannin?” Sakura asked shyly, ducking her head when wide blue eyes fixed on her. The other girl was gorgeous, and while a deep-rooted part of her wanted to beat her face in for Sasuke's affections, there was a hole where Takuto had been. The girl was vibrant and bright. Her accent wasn’t from Konoha. It might have been, once upon a time, but now it was a myriad of far-off places. Would the new girl be able to plug the gap she felt by the loss of Takuto? Was that fair for his memory?

“Yeah!” Naruto chimed, linking arms with the other kunoichi. “I know two. I was trained by Tsunade-hime first, and then Ero-sennin after. Sakura-chan, what do you do in the team?”

 _What do I do_? Sakura floundered for a moment, confused by the question. “I… I suppose not much, really,” she said honestly. It was the main reason she wanted to quit being a ninja. “I don’t have enough chakra…” Takuto would have told her she was being stupid, but that was the main reason Takuto had – Takuto had died, jumping in front of her and getting cleaved in two. She shuddered, fingers furling into fists and unfurling with the sheer strain she was putting on her fingernails. She glanced down and saw four welts in the fleshy part of her hand. _I don't feel a thing._

The girl, this Naruto, looked at her with those fiercely blue eyes and shook her head with a smile. “Not true,” the girl decided. “You’ve got plenty. Have you considered medical ninjutsu? Shall I teach you some?”

 _Medical ninjutsu_? Sakura glanced at Kakashi, who had his nose buried in his smutty books. She looked to Sasuke who looked like he wanted to throttle the blonde. “Erm…”

Naruto held out her hand, glowing a bright shade of green. “Trust me,” she said with a coy smile. “You remind me a lot of my sensei, Shizune. The old lady said she was like you. Cut your hand. Let me show you how cool medical jutsu is.”

Sakura obliged, slicing a deep welt into the palm of her hand. It didn’t feel like anything. Not after the mission to the Wave. She was _numb_. She marvelled as her new teammate healed her hand, leaving a puckered pink scar that faded the more chakra the girl applied. Within ten seconds, Sakura couldn’t tell she’d cut herself. “Wow,” she whispered, eyes blown wide in awe. “How-?”

“Chakra control,” Kakashi-sensei helpfully inputted, lifting his eyes to inspect Sakura’s hand. Uzumaki Naruto, huh? The healer extraordinaire. There were no Uzumaki in the medical department, though he knew of some Uzumaki who had created seals to support healing there. No Uzumaki had enough chakra control for the hospital. “Which you have in spades. Naruto-chan, does that mean you can do Tsunade’s – y’know?” He mimed punching his other hand.

“Baa-chan is a lot better than me,” Naruto admitted with a grin. “Obviously. But I can. I know some of her fighting style, if you want to learn it?” She liked Sakura. The girl’s world had been blown apart by the death of a comrade, and while Naruto wasn’t going to pander to her, it probably helped having a kunoichi instead of a male comrade instead – less comparisons, less competition with a ghost, less testosterone. “Tsunade is a pro at frontline fighting, as well as frontline healing. The healers are normally at the back of the pack, Sakura-chan, but Tsunade-sama is _amazing_. She kicks ass. And all kunoichi’s know they should kick ass.”

Sakura nodded, but her head wasn’t there anymore. She was thinking of how to become like Tsunade. “And you can teach me that?” she demanded. “The healing thing?”

Naruto shrugged. “I can try, but you’ll probably have more luck at the hospital,” she confessed, untugging her hair from the braid and shaking it free. “Especially if you have small reserves. They’ll be able to advise on specific practices to increase your chakra levels. Mine are huge so I don’t have to worry.”

“Huge?” Sasuke scoffed, glaring at the new girl. She just steamrolled in… He hated people like that. “You’re ridiculous. You look so weak.”

Naruto paused, glancing at him and smiling sweetly. She hummed, mulling over her reply to such an accusation. She could challenge him to a spar, or she could let it slide. “Shall I prove how weak I am?” she asked. “Kakashi-sensei?”

Kakashi held his hands up. He was interested to see how the cry-baby faired. It had been a while since he’d seen the blonde-haired Uzumaki running around Konoha, especially after _that_ incident he’d dubbed ‘The Night of the Two Thousand Clones’. He got some updates from the Uzumaki working in the ninja corps, but he didn’t have any reason to pry without them getting suspicious about his intentions. “Spars might be fun. In the very least, it’ll help us all get to know another,” he said agreeably. “After that, we’ll be doing the bell test if you aren’t too tired.”

Both Sasuke and Sakura groaned at the mention of the bell test, making Naruto pout. “Sounds like a drag,” she sighed, flapping her arms around. “Where’s the nearest Training Ground?”

“This way,” Sasuke grunted, grabbing the girl by the arm and dragging her to the nearest Training Ground. He was interested to see what a girl trained by the Sannin knew. Unlike Sakura, he knew the risks of being a Shinobi. It didn’t mean he didn’t care about Takuto’s death – far from it, but he knew that the boy had died an honourable death defending his comrade. His parents should be proud of their son. “Kakashi-sensei,” he called. “After this, we’re doing missions. Our teamwork will need work.” _I can’t let someone else die_ was left unspoken.

They arrived at the open field in record time, Naruto immediately taking note of the grounds around her. Trees provided good cover, with good weather conditions. She might be blinded if Sasuke took the side of the field that she wanted. Wind danced around her, tickling her long hair that she quickly tied into a ponytail. Kakashi-sensei and Sakura were sat on three training posts, which meant her attacks couldn’t be focused in that direction.

She fell into a loose stance, one arm curled above her and the other raised in front of her. Sasuke fell into a kata she had seen before: she assumed it was taught to all the Uchiha children, because the boy in her class when she was six used it. Uchiha Kenji, she thought his name might’ve been. He’d disappeared at some point. They gazed at each other, black eyes fixed on blue, and then the dance began.

Sasuke lunged, and Naruto danced. She met his blades with her own, though her strength overpowered his and he went stumbling back a few feet with every attempt. She knew almost immediately that he wasn’t using chakra to power his attacks, relying on brute strength: she was the opposite. Her gravity seals meant her strength was massive, especially with the Kyuubi healing every torn muscle, but powering chakra to her arms was the real key to her taijutsu. “Sasuke,” she said, holding her hand up to call the match. “I would appreciate it if you took note of my attacks and gave me feedback after, because I’ve already got loads to tell you.”

Kakashi winced, expecting the Uchiha to get enraged at the blonde’s words. But… “Okay,” the Uchiha panted, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, yeah. _Kami_ , you’re strong.”

Naruto grinned and the dance started again, with Sasuke managing to get one strike in. This was immediately followed with a burst of fire that Naruto flitted away from in a flash of yellow. “Close,” she sang, appearing behind him with a blade pressed to his throat. “You’re good.” Her voice was a low purr, and Sasuke started to laugh.

“Not as good as you,” he conceded, the blonde dropping her kunai from its threatening position. “You leave openings. Is that style new to you?”

“Yeah,” Naruto said sheepishly, shaking her hair out of the ponytail. “But it’s supposed to have openings. It’s about fluidity and movement. The Uchiha style is about dominance, whereas the Uzumaki style is about the dance. But you really need to invest in some weights, ‘ttebayo. Both of you do. I could destroy this field with a punch. How can I destroy this field in a punch, Sasuke?”

Sasuke looked at her, considering the question. There had to be a trick he hadn’t considered. _Chakra_. His eyes narrowed. “Show me,” he said. “Show me how it works, Naruto.”

Naruto held up two fingers. With a spark of chakra to her index finger and thumb, she flicked him in the forehead.

And Sasuke flew. His headband cushioned the blow, but he knew he would have a migraine for days – and then he was caught, pressed against Naruto’s breasts, her hair a yellow fan around him. She landed with him, albeit somewhat clumsily, and then pressed her hand to his forehead. Green chakra, visible to his Sharingan (when had he activated his Sharingan?), flowed through his head, his brain, soothing the migraine he thought he would develop.

His cheeks turned red as he gazed at the girl. “… Naruto,” he said breathlessly. “You _have_ to show me how to do that.”

“And me!” Sakura cheered, though the fangirl in her was raging at Naruto’s hands on her man. “That was _amazing_ , Naruto!” She grabbed the other girl’s arm, beaming at her. “Can you train me?”

Naruto looked to Kakashi for guidance here. She wasn’t the sensei. “How much do they know about chakra control?” she asked, interested in how much they’d been taught. She had learnt it all herself, honed to near-perfection through sheer hard work, and never had a genin team.

“The tree-walking exercise,” Kakashi said, eye-smiling at them all. Naruto was using a taijutsu style he had never seen before, not even with the newest clan in the village. Kushina didn’t use it when she was alive, preferring the Uzushio basic style. “But nothing more.”

“Water-walking then?” Naruto suggested. “And we should test your affinities. Sasuke, you’ll probably have a fire affinity given the size of your fireball… Sakura, I don’t know.” She fumbled around in a pouch around her waist, removing a small stack of chakra papers. She handed them out to her team. “Channel some chakra into these. I don’t really know how they work, though.”

Kakashi held his out, funnelling chakra into it. It wrinkled. “That means I have a lightning affinity,” he explained. “Naruto, your turn.”

Naruto’s paper split into two, with both halves becoming damp with water. “Wind and water affinities,” Kakashi said, nodding in approval. “When the paper splits, it indicates a wind affinity. When it dampens, that’s a water affinity. For fire, the paper ignites, and for earth it crumbles. Sakura,”

Sakura concentrated on the paper and it quickly crumbled away at the edges, with the centre dampening. “Water and earth,” Sakura murmured, storing that information away. “Naruto?”

“Yeah,” Naruto agreed immediately. She could help with water techniques. Jiraiya knew many water techniques despite not having the affinity – the Sage was a genius of hard work, learning many jutsu and mastering them outside of his affinity, and she endeavoured to match him. “I’ll help.”

Sasuke did the same, the paper burning away and crumbling in the centre. “Lightning and fire. Most Uchiha had fire.” He hummed, considering his team. “So between all three of us, we’ve got it covered.”

“Yeah,” Sakura agreed, sharing a smile with the broody boy. “Kakashi-sensei! You _have_ to teach us some techniques!”

“Not yet,” Naruto chided her, shaking her head. “Not for you. You need more chakra, Sakura-chan,” She linked their arms again. “And the best way to get that is to eat more, exercise more, train more. A D-rank elemental jutsu would drain you for days. And Sasuke, you should work on element-specific training before you attempt it. Try and set a leaf on fire.”

“Kakashi-sensei,” Sasuke said, face deadpan. “You suck.”


	17. Takuto

The first time Naruto jumped in front of Sakura, the girl saw Takuto. The spray of blood, the sickening _snick_ of the blade, the gore of his body sliced in two. And then she blinked, and Naruto was laughing off the blood staining her white clothes, a kunai protruding from her gut that she yanked out and tossed back at the assassin they were engaged with. And then she watched as Naruto made a clone, sent the clone off with an enraged Sasuke, and watched as Naruto led Sakura to an alcove. She watched – or maybe she felt – as Naruto stroked through Sakura’s – her – hair, listened as the girl cooed gentle words of bravery and friendship, and gradually returned to herself. As she watched Naruto’s gut rise and fall, she saw the wound stitch itself together through the cut in the cloth. She raised a shaking, glowing green hand to it, nudging it along until it was naught but a pink mark on tanned flesh. “Naruto,” the girl gasped finally, remembering who she was and how far she’d come. “Takuto.”

“I know,” Naruto whispered, and Sakura felt her _understand_. “I know, Sakura-chan. I’m sorry for scaring you. But I heal quick, idiot. I’m fine.”

“Sakura,” Sasuke dropped down beside them, kneeling into a crouch. He pressed the electronic device around his throat, barking out, “Raven to Wolf. Raven to Wolf. Mission accomplished. All dead. With the Slug and the Fox. Repeat, mission accomplished. With the Slug and the Fox. Over.” He released the communication device and his tone softened when he said, “Hey, moron.”

He reached out to poke Sakura’s forehead. They had grown as a team, Sakura especially. This was their first C-rank mission since Takuto’s death, collecting C-rank bounties on assassin’s aiming for low-levelled politicians around the nations. And he had turned as Sakura faced a gutting, watched as Naruto laughed and danced her way in front of the knife with nary a thought, and grew enraged as Naruto lost her carefree demeanour to protect their comrade. The girl had hardened in a way that she never did during their spars, creating a clone to go with him to seek out the final assassin, and the pair of them beheaded the man before he had time to attack.

“Sasuke,” Sakura said, face heating up. “Oh, _Gods_ ,” she groaned, covering her eyes and digging her palms in. “I froze. I froze. God, Naruto, Sasuke, I’m so sorry. What must you think of me…?”

Sasuke took one of her wrists and ended up awkwardly holding her hand, her once-dainty hands now beginning to callous and scar with her training. “Stop,” he ordered. “Not here. C’mon.”

And the new Team Seven brushed it off and stumbled their way to the Hokage Tower for a mission report, meeting Kakashi on the way. Somehow the man knew exactly what had happened, falling in step with the team. Sakura was tucked between Naruto and Sasuke, her hair falling over her face to shield reddened green eyes. “Good job, kids,” he praised, giving Sasuke an eye-smile and ruffling Naruto’s hair. “We will convene after the report to discuss what happened. Sakura-chan?”

The girl looked up, absolutely miserable. “Good job,” he praised, gaze now solemn. “I mean it.”

Sakura managed a woeful smile and remained silent throughout the briefing, accepting her pay even though she felt she didn’t deserve it. She was dragged along to Ichiraku Ramen by a chirpy Naruto, nodding occasionally to the girl’s words. She marvelled at the difference between them. She knew Naruto’s flare and sass came from being trained by two of Konoha’s strongest ninja, but it didn’t help her resentment any less. “What makes you special?” she wondered out loud, making Naruto stiffen before the other girl laughed, ushering her into the stand. “I mean it, Naruto. I want an explanation. How did you heal so quickly? Why are you so strong?”

“Maa, maa,” Kakashi said, shaking his head. “Sakura –…”

“I want to know too,” Sasuke decided, crossing his arms. Naruto looked between them both with a gentle smile that he found insufferable and out of place, given the seriousness of their conversation. “You said that you were chosen when you were younger, but why?”

Naruto scribbled a small seal onto a loose bit of paper, funnelling some chakra into the seal and tapping each of her teammates in turn. A small spiral appeared on the spot she tapped. “There,” she said quietly. “Now we won’t be overheard. I guess… We’re teammates. So I have to trust you.” She paused. “Do you know what a jinchuuriki is?”

Sakura gasped, fingers tightening into a fist. She knew. She remembered the small blonde child her parents told her to avoid. “The Kyuubi,” she deduced immediately, appraising the girl in a new light. “It couldn’t be defeated.”

“No,” Naruto said, surprisingly calm given the conversation. Sasuke looked between the two girls and then at his sensei, not quite making the link just yet. “Do you remember Mizuki, from the Academy?”

Sakura vaguely remembered him. Eccentric hair, but MIA following a mission where he was revealed as a traitor to Konoha.

“He… I failed the test. He told me there was another way, which culminated in me stealing the Forbidden Scroll from jiji’s office… Aha… Kakashi-sensei?” Up till now, the jounin had been silent.

He dipped his head. “Naruto discovered that she was the container of the demon, Kyuubi,” he said, making Sasuke’s eyes widen in realisation. “She then killed Mizuki, a traitor to Konoha by coercing an Academy student into theft, as well as sabotaging this particular student throughout the Academy. A fitting punishment and one that would have been delivered by the Hokage himself.” He pondered on breaking the S-class secret. If he just… Never told the Hokage, it would merely be an omission instead of a lie. Technically, Naruto had broken it first, and Sasuke would have made the leap eventually.

“However, I had really good chakra control despite this,” Naruto continued cheerfully. “And instead of risking more sabotage that could result in the village losing its jinchuuriki, I was assigned to the two _faithful_ Sannin. I understand if you two… Don’t want to be on a team with me, but I would urge you to think of me as a scroll containing a kunai. I am not the kunai. I just… have it in my gut.”

Sakura reached out with a trembling hand and slapped the girl across the face. She stared at Naruto’s horrified face and crumbled into her, crying into her chest the same way she did earlier. She felt Sasuke’s arm wind around her waist and knew, intrinsically and lovingly, that while she felt bad for Takuto’s death, she could finally move on with her new team.

“Guys?” Kakashi said, amused. “Can you drop the – whatever it is? I think the young lady wants to take our orders.”

The heavy atmosphere was dispelled with their laughter, even if Sakura’s was slightly hysterical. She kept a tight grip on Naruto’s hand as though the girl was her lifeline.

"So what was he like?" Naruto asked.

"Stupid," Sasuke grunted. "He was the dead-last at the Academy, could barely hold a kunai."

"I'm not sure that's true," Naruto said gently, looking to Kakashi.

Kakashi eye-smiled. "He was kind," he murmured. "He wanted to carry on with the mission. We were just escorting a bridge-builder initially, but he had mercenaries after him. Takuto got poisoned in his first battle because he just - froze."

"Sasuke-kun had some antivenin on him, so he was fine," Sakura hastened to add, giggling. "The idiot sliced his hand open instead and let the poison bleed out. Kakashi-sensei had to carry him because he got so sick he could barely stand... but we had to continue with the mission. We then got attacked by - by the Demon of the Bloody Mist, and his apprentice. Sasuke's Sharingan activated because he had to protect me, Tazuna-san, and Takuto," Sakura faltered, but ploughed on, "And Takuto--"

_Takuto was being annoying. "Diamond formation," Takuto cried out, and Sakura listened because that was what Sakura did best. She listened. She held her kunai in her shaking hands and she listened._

_It felt like her ears were stuffed with cotton wool, the air **thick** in a way that she'd never felt before, and Kakashi-sensei had a **red** eye that upset Sasuke - which meant Kakashi-sensei had the Sharingan, which meant the Hatake clan must have been the offshoot of the Uchiha clan, because there was no way Kakashi-sensei should have the Sharingan otherwise._

_The mist thickened more, more, and she could barely see the silhouette of Sasuke's back at the front of the diamond. Tazuna whimpered behind her, and her first response was to, "Shhh," with a gentleness the situation didn't need. Couldn't need. She couldn't spare energy on being kind to civilians._

_"Sakura!" Takuto cried, and there was a push, a shove, and then Takuto was holding off the Demon of the Bloody Mist with a standard Konoha kunai made of steel._

_It held for all of two seconds._

_It was enough._

_Sakura grunted, jamming the syringe into the thick muscle of the foreign ninja's thigh and depressing the plunger. Her strongest sedative, one her mama had given her as a precaution for her first C-rank--_

_Zabuza didn't even flinch, spinning on the spot. She had a split second to think before his foot was buried in her gut. She spluttered, something wet and metallic erupting in her mouth like ash and thought **I've just bit my tongue clean off I've just bit my tongue clean off** but it was so much worse, a sickening splintering of her ribs popping and grinding, and then Kakashi-sensei--_

_Kakashi-sensei was fighting, Takuto was using some kind of green chakra to try to - to what?_

_She didn't know._

_She felt tired._

_"Don't **fucking** sleep on me, Sakura," Takuto hissed through gritted teeth, sweat dripping down his brown skin, lips curled into a snarl. His curly hair flopped onto his face, tendrils of loopy curl matted to his face without their usual buoyancy. His black eyes were enraged, and she thought--_

_Sasuke-kun..._

_When she'd woken up to an empty house and a girdle wrapped around her middle, and Tsunami-san screaming as thugs threatened to cut her son in two, Sakura saw red, using a strength she didn't know she possessed to fight back for the civilians. In Tsunami's eyes she saw herself, pink hair a mess and her ribs supported by six steel rods, wrapped in brown leather and bandages as a make-shift girdle and **knew** something was wrong._

_But she couldn't worry about it._

_She took a sword - not that she knew how to use it - and grabbed a shirt, baggy and oversized as she sprinted to the battlegrounds at the bridge._

_Where she had to defend the civilian again._

_Where Takuto, with black eyes lit with fire, had swept her into a big hug and murmured, "Welcome back, princess,"_

_Where Sakura laughed, drew attention to them._

_Where Sakura got shoved with the force of a thousand suns, her ribs protesting the move._

_Where Sakura got coated in a slick of burning hot red blood and innards._

_Where Sakura got lost, and in that moment found a rage so potent she took her stolen sword and ran Zabuza through, her war cry splitting the still air._

_And birds._

_Why could she hear birds?_

_And Takuto... laughing?_

_"Princess," he said with a wet cough, and he shouldn't be moving, talking, his fucking guts hanging outside of his body, his pelvis removed from his body-- "Welcome back. Welcome... Welcome back..."_

_"Stay with me," she begged, memories of a feverish dream passing over her, Takuto pressing a kiss to her forehead, Takuto combing her hair with a brush while Sakura lay prone on his futon, Takuto holding watch over her, Takuto giving her fluids he'd bought from a local hospital with his own money, Takuto--takutotakutotakuto----_

"I'm sorry," Naruto whispered. "It sounds like he really loved you."

And Sakura didn't have any more tears left to cry.

"He did," Sasuke muttered, a broken sound leaving Sakura's lips. "Threatened me with castration if I accepted your advances."

That sparked a laugh from Naruto, broke the haunting atmosphere, and then Sakura started to giggle too. 

"To Takuto," Naruto said, raising her cup in toast.

"To Takuto," Kakashi agreed, his bowl of ramen somehow empty even though he hadn't moved his mask.

"To Kobayashi Takuto," Sasuke said gently, clinking their glasses together.

"To my idiot of a teammate," Sakura said, wiping her eyes.


	18. Gaara of the Sand

With the revelation of Naruto’s jinchuuriki status came more training and more missions. They moved as a fluid unit, Sakura’s strength growing massively within weeks. Sasuke had started to develop the third tomoe of his Sharingan in his right eye, though it seemed to pick and choose when it wanted to show. And Naruto was teaching them everything she knew and more, working on adjustments to a jutsu she refused to share with them just yet.

Kakashi had to put his foot down when she attempted to teach them the Shadow Clone jutsu, which caused a few arguments between them all. He won, though he was immensely disappointed when, during a spar, Sasuke produced a corporeal Shadow Clone against Sakura and used it to knock her out.

It didn’t stop him from nominating them for the Chuunin Exams.

“All you have to do is show up with a signed form one week from now,” Kakashi held up the form, eye-smiling at them all. Sakura looked confident, which was good. He knew Naruto and Sasuke would go straight for it, Naruto itching to get that promotion and Sasuke determined to kill his brother. They started so _old_ , nowadays... “And then the exams begin.”

“Let’s do it,” Sakura said, the rising leader of their little team. Naruto and Sasuke had the brawn, but she had the brains. “But we’ll have to sort out our packs properly. We don’t know what we’re getting in for.”

Naruto hummed, glancing at Kakashi. “It’s normally a mental test first,” she said. “Followed by a physical test. During the last Chuunin Exams, it was a puzzle followed by a survival test across the Suna desert. By that logic, we should go prepared for survival training… Where in Konoha would they…?”

“Forest of Death,” Sasuke decided, tilting his head in thought. “The animals grow double, triple the size there, with thatches of forest growing exactly the same to confuse people who train there. My brother… Mentioned it once.” He furrowed his brow. “We’ll need to change our clothes. Sakura, the red is too bright, and Naruto… It might make more sense for us to dress similarly.”

Sasuke moved off, Sakura and Naruto following dutifully. Kakashi watched with a fond smile. “It’ll show a united front,” he said, tone stern. “And it might discourage our comrades from going for us first. We need weapons – we need to sharpen them, tidy them up. We need to work on our united attacks. With Naruto’s wind and my fire, we can obliterate the clearing. Have you got that earth technique down, Sakura?”

“Nearly… I need more chakra,” Sakura confessed glumly. She had gained weight in the past few months of her new team working together, the fat turning to muscle immediately. Her hair she now wore in one high ponytail, her headband a comforting weight around her forehead. Her chakra had grown in leaps and bounds, but not enough for the A-rank jutsu Kakashi had ‘accidentally’ taught her. If he was being honest, he would say that her amount of chakra now levelled with Takuto's when he joined the team, and - well. Takuto was a male, so he had more chakra, but Takuto was a civilian, and Sakura was lacking. “I can just about turn a two-metre space into a swamp, enough to get the enemy stuck, but…”

Sasuke hummed, nodding his head at her. “Good,” he praised, making his once-fangirl flush. “That’ll be effective for Genin. In, Naruto,” He ushered the girl in front of him, sending her into the clothing store first. Sakura followed while he hovered by the doorway, assessing the various choices available to the young women. Naruto would complain if she lost her boots, which meant Sakura could do with a pair… He flitted around the store, reminiscing on what the Uchiha women used to wear. His mother wore regulation uniform from the old photographs he had, which meant trousers, fitted flak vests and whatever else she decided to wear. With that in mind, he threw clothes at the girls and made them change while he looked away. The younger women of the clan used to wear more revealing clothes, but Sasuke felt - possessive, almost, didn't want his female teammates cast in that light. They were too powerful to be seen like _that_. 

Or was that being sexist? Was he removing their right to be - to be _sexual?_ Was that casting his teammates in _another_ light? 

His mother would have his head if she was still alive. But, he would argue, he never expected to have two _female_ teammates, and you can only be aloof for so long before - before you got _attached_ , and that felt wrong to say but he _was_ , in fact, attached, and didn't want his two powerful _female_ teammates to be looked at by perverts.

He blanched, debating now whether he was removing their _choice_ to look nice, which made him just as bad--

“Good choices, I guess,” Naruto grinned, doing a little twirl in the red-lined black jacket her and Sakura both wore. It was cropped to their middles, although Naruto filled it differently. Black trousers and a waistband with several pouches meant there was a lot of movement with enough coverage for warmth. And her beloved boots, though Sakura’s had no steel capping but instead were more like sandals, her toes exposed. Together, they looked like a duo of fearsome Kunoichi. “But you need to match us, Sasuke.”

Sasuke nodded in agreement, flitting around the store once more to grab duplicates of everything as well as his own clothes. “Your hair,” he said, glancing at both girls. Sakura’s hair was a liability, lengthy to the point of being grabbed from behind and her throat slit instantaneously. She wasn't strong enough yet. Naruto’s secondary hitai-ate provided her some protection, but her hair was bright like spun gold, tumbling in thick wefts down her back. He knew of one other person with hair that golden in the Land of Fire, which told him all he needed to know about the girl. Having the Toad Sannin as her teacher merely amplified his suspicions. “Iwa may not be participating, but the colour, Naruto – Sakura, your ponytail...”

Naruto tilted her head, expression suddenly cold and indifferent. Sasuke had never seen her looking so much like a predator, and his hand moved for his kunai before he could stop it. Sakura looked between them both, narrowing her eyes at Naruto’s hair.

And the world made sense.

The Yondaime Hokage had sealed the demon into his own child’s body, unable to sacrifice anyone other than his own kin for the hurt that would follow.

“Oh, shit,” Sakura whispered, starting to grin despite the horror she felt for the other girl. Was that hysteria she felt? “How have I not made that connection already? Smartest in my class, they said.” She tugged on Naruto’s golden locks, the girls’ calculating gaze shifting to her. “What colour, Sasuke?”

“… Red, like the rest of the Uzumaki, and your clan will be overjoyed by that,” he decided, moving his hand away from his weapon. “Your hair is distinctive too, Sakura. The Konoha teams will move for us straight away.”

“And yours is distinctive,” Naruto countered, relaxing only marginally. They had guessed at her father, and she did nothing to tell them otherwise. This level of trust was loosely placed, she knew. If they told the world… Even her status as a jinchuuriki, someone to be feared, wouldn’t stop any assassination attempts from Iwa. For all she knew, Iwa were aware of her existence and were working on a subterfuge plan to assassinate her. Maybe Sasuke was an Iwa spy? Or Sakura? “And if you wear a shirt with the Uchiha fan on, you’ll be targeted, Sasuke. We need to work smarter.”

A cough interrupted them. Sasuke turned, glancing at the newcomer. His sensei tapped his mask with his ridiculous eye-smile and disappeared in a plume of smoke. “Masks for us all, then,” he sighed, shaking his head. “He’s absolutely _infuriating_.”

After what felt like hours, they left the shop wearing one set of new clothing, the rest sealed away in Naruto’s special scrolls. They stalked through the village to their next stop: general supplies for Shinobi. It ranged from food supplements, rations, bandages, general medical supplies, to the more obscure hair dye and Kunoichi ‘necessities’. Condoms, Sasuke assumed. Seduction missions could result in sexual intercourse, and it would only make sense for condoms to be the necessities that women needed. He’d never really paid it much thought before. Did girls have different bodily functions to boys? Was that why they were sectioned off in the Academy?

He glanced around the store before going straight for the hair dye, torn between what looked like a blood red and a more purple-red. Dye for Konoha Shinobi was uncommon, given most had brown or black hair, but there were cases where a new identity could not simply be given through a Henge. “Naruto?” he called, fingering the pot of blood red dye. “What do you think?”

The girl appeared at his side like a ghost, her footsteps silent. He must have spooked her more than she was letting on. He reached down and squeezed her wrist before giving her what he hoped was a smile. It could have been a grimace. From the way she relaxed and beamed back at him, he’d smiled. Point to Sasuke. “Two pots,” she told him, picking up another pot of dye. “I’ve dyed my hair before. It faded almost immediately. It should be sufficient for a survival test no longer than two weeks.”

Sasuke inclined his head. “Naruto,” he said hesitantly, glancing at his other female teammate. “What you did for Sakura… Thank you. I would like to extend my home to you and Sakura as my teammates. We need to do all the training we can in the next week. I know the Uzumaki clan household is constantly buzzing with activity, so I can’t see how you could relax…”

“Rest day on day six and seven,” Naruto said immediately, picking up some chakra-boosting pills. They cost a pretty penny, but for Sakura they should amplify her output during the survival test. “And we are making bold assumptions given we’ve only just received the invitation to attend. As for relaxing at home, I’m the clan heir so they leave me alone.”

“Team Seven will be in the finals,” Sasuke said, confidence in his voice. He was stating a fact. He truly believed this team would make it to the final of the Chuunin exams, and with such a proclamation, who was Naruto to disagree? “But only if we’re prepared. We need to find out what Countries are participating.” _Wait…_ “You’re the clan heir?” he asked, eyes widening even more.

Her father was the Fourth Hokage. Her mother was a direct descendant of the Head of the clan. Naruto’s blood would be worth millions on the black market. _Even more reason to dye her hair…_

“Suna is definitely participating,” Naruto murmured, going into her pouch to remove a message from her first friend she’d ever made. She loosed it from the bow she had tied around it, revealing the contents to her teammate. “And Gaara-kun believes the Land of Sound will be participating. I think we should assume Amegakure, Kusagakure and Takigakure will also participate. Kirigakure… I think they might participate, but their intake will be low. I know Hiroyuki-jii is pushing for them to not attend, along with Iwa. They’ve managed to keep their identity on the low by having missions restricted to the village and allies, but Ero-sennin thinks word might be slowly getting out. My mama was Uzumaki Kushina, the previous jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails and daughter of the Uzukage. Hiroyuki-jii was Uzukage before he came here, and now he works with the old biddies in the office as the Hokage’s seconds.”

Sasuke stared at her like he’d never seen her before. “So you’re actually Naruto-hime,” he said in amusement. “All this time, this village has thought of you as nothing… When you’re the clan heir to the most feared clan this side of the of Warring Clans Era, and whose village got decimated because of this. You are… Naruto-hime.” Naruto winked at him, which he guessed was as good an answer as any he would get from her. “And what else?” he probed, scanning through the scroll. He furrowed his brow at some of the content.

_Dearest Naruto,_

_I am writing to inform you of new plans my father has put forward. I will be visiting Konohagakure in three weeks’ time, and I hope to see you there. I have news to share once I arrive._

_However, some things cannot wait. There is a snake in the grass who has created Otogakure. Their main attacks use sound. Exercise caution, Naruto. I will be watching for you._

_I apologise for sending two letters so close together. I have no doubt your reply is already en route to me, and for that I am grateful; your letters help Mother go away._

_Yours,_

_Gaara_

Naruto read through it again, expression flat. She didn’t know what snake in the grass meant. “Sasuke?” she asked, tapping the line. “What do you think?”

“Coded message,” the boy said straight away. “A snake in the grass… In the Grass village? Sakura!” he barked, the girl coming straight over. “Read this. Deduce.”

Sakura roamed her eyes over the message. ‘Snake’ had been written in pencil and then pressed over in a brush. “Snake… I don’t know who that might mean. He’s warning you, that much is obvious. The message hasn’t been intercepted. It looks hasty. Grass. A snake is…” She tilted her head and then shook it, unsure. “Speak to the Hokage. It’s a coded message.”

“He’s the Kazekage’s son,” Naruto offered, shrugging her shoulders. “I’ve already told Baa-chan, but she won’t tell me what it means. She got this furrow between her brow…”

“There are three Sannin,” Sakura said slowly, glancing at Sasuke. He was following her, she thought. “One of whom is a traitor to Konoha…”

Sasuke glared at the scroll and snatched it from Naruto’s hands, taking it outside. He took a deep breath, powering chakra to line his throat, lungs, and lips: and whispered, _Katon_ , the elemental chakra bubbling in excitement as he blew a thin stream of fire at the scroll. Naruto followed him out with a scowl, throwing the items she wanted at Sakura. “ _Teme_!” she cried, watching her letter burn into ash. “What are you doing?!”

“We need to go to the Hokage at once, but we can’t risk this message getting out!” Sasuke snapped back at her. Orochimaru the snake Sannin would be infiltrating the exams. For what? Why would he? There would be no logic to it!

“What are we waiting for?” Sakura chimed, holding a bag of goods in her arms. “We have to move. Naruto, you _have_ to explain your relationship with this boy. He said _dearest Naruto_. Is he your… Boyfriend?” Sakura couldn’t help but be hopeful. The longer she got to know Sasuke, the more she fell in love with him. No… The more she felt love for him. Sasuke didn’t feel the same, she knew, but he also kept his eyes on Naruto’s hair, her face, her breasts; her waist, her hips, her _everything_ , for a little longer than necessary. Or maybe she was paranoid.

“No,” Naruto giggled, the team taking to the rooftops to travel. They moved in tandem; it sounded like one heavy foot after another, instead of three separate human beings. “Gaara-kun… He’s like me, but his seal is wonky. I can’t reseal it without disrupting the original matrix, but I’ve come up with several seals that could work with the original seal. Jiraiya-sensei is looking over them. He’s the host of the One-Tail, but if I let it loose with one sloppy mistake… Hiroyuki-jii has some from the Uzumaki archives but, simply, would be too powerful for the Ichibi. Gaara-kun would lose his control over his chakra as it would get sealed too. So far, we can’t decide how best to amend our existing seals for the Ichibi.”

“He could level his village,” Sakura filled in for her, sighing. “How is he? Is he nice?”

“Not at all!” Naruto snorted, seeing an open window and making the leap. Sasuke and Sakura followed like baby ducks following their mama.

It was no surprise to the Hokage, who greeted the girl with a wide smile and gestured to three seats in front of him. “To what do I owe the pleasure? Oh, what lovely… Outfits,” He smirked at Team Seven. Mini-Kakashi’s, all three of them! And from what he’d heard, they were shaping up to be the next Sannin. “Very inspired.”

Naruto inclined her head, accepting the praise like a flower soaking up the sun. “We have intel of an attack occurring during the Chuunin exams,” she said, making the old man stiffen.

He got his pipe and stuffed it with the _good_ tobacco, not his usual fare. He lit it and took a long drag before he replied, “And what intel is this?”

“The son of the Kazekage,” Sasuke said confidently. “We have destroyed the message for fear of it falling into the wrong hands, but I can recite the warning: _there is a snake in the grass who has created Otogakure._ We assume he means the Snake Sannin, Orochimaru. We believe… Sakura?” His teammate had been inching forward in her seat, green eyes alight with a new fire.

“We believe that he is posing as a Genin from the Grass Village,” she exclaimed, making the Hokage sigh. “And we believe that his teams will be focused on destroying Konoha.”

The man stood, turning to gaze out of the opened window. “I had hoped,” he said lightly. “That it would not come to this. Thank you, children.” He turned, eyes hardened. No longer was he the kind old man that Naruto knew, but her Hokage and commander. “Remain seated.”

“I will send for Jiraiya and Tsunade,” He did not know whether he trusted intelligence from the boy. The Kazekage did imply his son was unstable. But then… He hadn’t heard from the Kazekage in three months, and the man was fervent in his messages. Perhaps he hadn’t been hearing from the Kazekage… Because the Kazekage was involved in a scheme to destroy Konoha. He would need to start drafting wartime plans. “Genin, dismissed.”

Sakura slapped her hand over Naruto’s mouth before the girl could argue, and the three disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Alone in his office, Sarutobi began to write the wartime plans, feeling his age.


	19. Team Seven

“I can’t believe that happened,” Naruto said, dazed and confused. They had ended up at the Uchiha estate, with Sakura making them tea in Sasuke’s unused and dusty kitchen. 

Sakura frowned at her. “We’re lucky to not have been branded traitors,” she said, pouring out three cups of green tea. “That was not our place to be as genin. We should be honoured to have been considered and listened to. I just hope your friend is okay.”

“Why wouldn’t he be okay?” Naruto asked. Sakura was right. The Hokage had no reason to trust three genin, nor a Suna genin sending badly encrypted messages on paper. She was concerned about why Tsunade hadn't said anything to the Old Man, but maybe she just didn't care.

“He’s revealed their plans. Is he monitored?” Sakura asked, setting the cups down before kneeling down herself. “Will they know?”

“Gaara would have killed them before they got close,” Naruto said dismissively, waving her hand over the hot tea. Sasuke spluttered at her, aghast at how open she was about the concept of someone she considered a friend killing people with ease. “What, teme?” She rolled her eyes. “We’re ninja. Gaara is a jinchuuriki with a defective seal. His sand would kill them. He’s… Not in control. The only reason he's overheard anything is because they think he's too emotionally stunted to form relationships of value.” She swallowed tightly, glancing at both of them in turn. “His taijutsu is poor. If either of you are against him, his taijutsu is non-existent. You have to be fast to get close to him. If you dampen his sand, you gain about a two second advantage. Remember that.”

Sasuke nodded slowly, burning that information into his brain. “Will there be any other jinchuuriki in the exams?”

“Me,” Naruto said, eye-smiling at them and tugging her mask down to sip the scalding tea. She then removed another scroll from her person and opened it, two books popping into existence. One was a notebook, the other the Bingo book. She opened her notebook and read, “Sabaku no Gaara is a Genin in Sunagakure with the Ichibi. Yugito – Unknown – is a Chuunin in Kumo. She’ll make Jounin before the year is out. The Fourth Mizukage has the Isobu.”

“You have a fact file on the jinchuuriki,” Sasuke said slowly, leaning forward and staring at the worn pages with Naruto. “So who will be attending the exam?”

“Myself and Gaara. You don’t have to worry about the others unless we fail – there is Fuu from Takigakure with the Seven-Tails, but she’s a bit - no, Taki is quite weak, and they may not want her to be a chuunin yet.” Naruto pushed the book towards him. “It was Jiraiya’s way of teaching me to spy. The Bingo book has an interesting entry for you, Sasuke.”

Sasuke stiffened, picking up the book. He fingered the pages until he came to Uchiha Itachi. The face of his brother stared back at him and he started to shake, enraged by how much Naruto seemed to know about him when he knew so little. “Didn’t your clan… Didn’t they all get massacred? I mean, I can remember Kenji disappearing from class but - well, I wasn't sure, so I researched it a bit,” Naruto asked uncertainly, breaking him out of his stupor. “But this guy must have escaped. Do you know him?”

Sasuke’s anger dissipated. She didn’t know. His weirdly all-knowing comrade didn’t know something. “He’s my brother,” he said, tone indifferent. “He committed the massacre, and he left me alive to kill him. My goal… My dream is to avenge my clan. My dream is to kill this man.”

Sakura touched the back of Sasuke’s hand gently. “We’ll help you,” she said, glancing at Naruto. The blonde nodded fervently in agreement. “You don’t have to do this alone. We’ll help you, Sasuke.”

Rage filled him. “You know nothing,” he spat, shoving her hand away and then shoving the table back. “You know nothing of pain. I don’t need your help. I don’t need _friends_ ,” He spat the word like a curse. “And I don’t need…” He faltered, glancing at both girls. Sakura looked shook-up, but Naruto looked about as angry as he was. And then -- he sensed the killing intent and dodged the strike. The sheer power of the hit would have destroyed his kitchen if he’d let it connect. He dodged Naruto’s next punch, running out into the street of the Uchiha compound.

Naruto kept going, determined to punch the fuck out of him until he realised what being a team meant. “Teme,” she hissed. “We are your _team_. We’re here to help you. And if I have to hurt you to make you realise, _I will_.”

Sasuke fled to the training grounds the Uchiha possessed, the grass burnt away by his own training efforts. He barely dodged another punch, but Naruto _shattered_ the ground beneath him, making him leap into the air again. He took a deep breath and blew out a stream of molten hot fire, spewing it around him without words nor seals. Naruto let out a startled cry and he flung himself in the direction it came from, managing to land a punch on the godlike girl’s face. She landed in a small crater on the decimated ground. He flipped mid-air and twisted to go for another shot while she was down.

Sakura flung herself in front of Naruto, arms raised in a cross to defend her friend. “Stop,” she ordered, and Sasuke took a deep inhale, eyeing his fallen comrade. “Both of you, stop it. Stop it. Sasuke, we love you. I love you.” Her expressive green eyes bore into his. “We will support you. We are your team. Naruto… no, I _know_ **I** will be good enough to support you in this. Let me support you.”

Naruto pushed herself up, eyes bleeding red with rage as she glared at the last Uchiha. “We both will,” she snarled at him. “And I can the fucking bait, _teme_. He's part of the group after the demon. You’re… You’re my teammates – my friends. Revenge doesn’t have to be a solo thing. We can do it together.” Her eyes gradually faded to a violet, but they were no longer slitted like they were before.

“The fox,” Sasuke murmured. “You got that mad?” He glanced between both females on his team and conceded defeat on the matter – they were too resolute on helping him.

Team Seven would destroy Uchiha Itachi. He wondered if that’s what family felt like.

* * *

"Are you sure you want to meet them?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

Sasuke hummed, nestled rather neatly between his two teammates as they traipsed through Konoha. "Yes," he said, because why wouldn't he? Meeting Naruto's family sounded... _Fun_ , sounded exciting, and he would never turn such an opportunity down. It might be nice to be a part of a ninja family again, with all their eccentricities, and Sakura _needed_ to experience the fun of a ninja clan.

"What do I do?" Sakura asked nervously, smoothing down her shirt. "What if they don't like me?"

"You're protected by the Uchiha anyway," Naruto said, waving her hand. "So there's nothing to be lost politically."

"Am I?" Sakura squeaked, and Sasuke hid his smile behind his wide collar.

“Yes,” Naruto said warmly, nudging their elbows together. “Even though Sasuke doesn’t attend the council meetings, it’s one of those known things. You also have some sway with the Yamanaka, though that has waned a little since the team placements. According to the gossip, you fell out over something, which then meant you lost some support.”

“You lose support from children falling out?” Sakura asked in surprise. “Is that normal?”

”Not really, but at the time, tensions were high," Sasuke said. "Taking a civilian family, even if your parents _were_ ninja, under their wings -- well. It was around the time some bastards went missing."

"Why? What did they do?" Sakura asked in surprise. "You don't usually curse, Sasuke-kun."

"Illegitimate children," Sasuke clarified. "I can remember my kaa-san talking about it. The Yamanaka lost a child, as did the Nara and the Inuzuka. They're still missing."

"Well," Naruto snarled, rather suddenly, making Sakura jump. "Everyone knows _where_ they are, but whether they remember _who_ they are is another question entirely. Unless they were female, and then... Well, having a seductress Nara, Yamanaka _or_ Inuzuka would be beneficial with their abilities."

Sasuke made a mild noise in the back of his throat, and Naruto wasn't sure whether he agreed. Sakura let out a horrified little gasp, and Naruto plowed on, "If they possessed any clan ability, it's likely they went to Shimura Danzo to be weaponised, but if they were female, it's just as likely they went into the Seduction Corps."

"That's a thing?" Sakura whispered. "I thought that was a later specialism?"

"For some, yes," Naruto agreed. "But your muscles would give you away by the time you were Chuunin, which is when the sign-ups occur. The behaviour is engrained. And you're too -- mature, for the more unsavoury roles. That's where ROOT and the Seduction Corps collaborate."

"How do you know that?" Sasuke said, eyes narrowing as he glanced up and down the bustling street they were on. Naruto was _such_ a blabbermouth, but there was a sick feeling curling in his stomach. "That sounds like a secret, Naruto."

"It's the worst kept secret this side of the formation of Konoha," Naruto grumbled. "There's all _sorts_ of whispers. Kakashi-sensei was taken in by ROOT when he was younger. If we're the light, then ROOT are the shadows. But _we're_ supposed to be the shadows. We had assassination C-ranks, but they were 'bad' people. If we were in ROOT, we'd be assassinating children, women, babies, and we wouldn't feel a thing while we did it."

Sasuke had a brief, fleeting moment, of his brother's face.

Of that night.

He pushed it away, chill running down his spine. He often wondered if he imagined the crying, the teardrop _plink_ on the floor as he slumped. Wondered if he was a child humanising his older brother, or if Itachi was genuinely remorseful.

It wasn't like it _mattered_.

"Is that the compound?" Sakura asked, tone stunned. 

Sasuke blinked it away, focusing on white, sweeping buildings, single-storey and nestled atop a gentle slope, pale pink walls emblazoned with white seals shining in the Konoha sun. In the centre, a larger building stood, the Uzumaki swirl visible and _bright_.

It had been a long time since he'd seen a clan compound as proud as it's heritage as this. "It's lovely," Sasuke said, because it _was_. He could hear children laughing, birds singing, and the curious roar of some kind of big cat.

"Did you learn all that from Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked, Naruto leading the charge into the compound. The arguing got louder as they got closer, and then there was the sound of breaking glass as a young woman hurtled through a window. She was followed shortly by a much smaller child, and Sasuke watched, enraptured, as the older girl poked the child in the forehead and ran away, and the young girl resumed her frantic attacks.

"Mainly Jiraiya, actually, but I suppose I got my opinions from Tsunade," Naruto mused, taking both of their hands. Their fingers entwined, she dragged them through the door. Sasuke was unusually quiet, and Sakura seemed pensive too.

"Naruto-chan!" Fumiko called with a cheery smile. "Welcome home!"

Sasuke stared up at the matronly figure, her kimono a crisp white and lined with blue. One arm was tucked into her obi, the other raised and pressed against the wall as the woman slipped on a pair of sandals. _One, two, three... thirty one, thirty two--_ Sasuke grimaced, all of the sandals different sizes, different treads. _They all live in this huge compound._ It was never like that at the Uchiha Estate; every house was individual, every family secular in the hive that was the Uchiha.

Not like this.

This was...

He could hear children giggling, the compound huge and sweeping in size. He could see various houses through the big, shiny windows that made up the opposing wall, and in the centre of it there was a large, square building that read 'Daycare'. He could _smell_ food cooking, feel the _heat_ from so many bodies in one big unit.

It was a heady, confusing mix of emotions, smells, and thoughts that assaulted him. He had visions of bodies hitting the floor, the cool sand under his sandals and hands as he crawled back from training at the Uchiha Training Grounds -- this was _extraordinary_.

"I'm back!" Naruto said with a smile, tugging on Sasuke's arm. He removed his sandals mechanically, fixating now on complex seals he didn't understand. It was a good distraction, something new, something he'd never seen before. It was good to focus on _anything_ else.

His Sharingan swirled to life.

"That's rude, Uchiha-san," Fumiko said, an undercurrent of steel to her voice. "And you need to be careful of the chakra drain."

 _What?_ he thought, and then he felt it: a siphon, a deep sucking on his chakra core, and he quickly deactivated the dojutsu. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "It was automatic. These are incredibly, incredibly complex seals."

"Yes," the woman agreed, angry tone continuing. "And they are made to be understood only by Uzumaki, so we would appreciate if you don't attempt that again."

"Understood," Sasuke nodded frantically. The woman stared for a moment longer, and then she beamed. 

"I'm Uzumaki Fumiko," she said. "And it's wonderful to meet you both. Now, I must be off, because the first aid supplies are running out. Please enjoy yourselves."

"Thank you!" Sakura said, bowing deeply. Sasuke bowed after a brief hesitation, his manners returning slowly but surely. "We look forward to our stay!"

"Bit formal," Naruto teased, nudging Sakura in the side. "See you later, baa-chan."

Fumiko left, and Naruto turned a curious gaze onto him. "You activated your eyes," she said. Her tone was unreadable. Sasuke shifted, neck flushing with guilt, "You're lucky you're no Hyuuga. The gravity seals kick in with Hyuuga eyes."

"You can distinguish?!" Sasuke burst out, eyeing the seals once more. _Wood_ , he thought. _Lotus flower. Womb. Blood._ They were just **words** \- he didn't understand sealing. Why did 'womb' have lines intersecting it? "How?"

"It depends on the capabilities of the dojutsu," Sakura decided. "Your eyes copy, but they don't see _through_ things. But wouldn't you have to have a lot of hidden knowledge?"

"Kekkai genkai are mutations in the gene, and Sasuke's Sharingan is one of two still running around. You can make it disappear by pulling away chakra. The Byakugan is slightly different, as it requires less chakra output -- so the seals pull their faces to the ground and keep them glued for a total of one hour. They can still _see_ , so there's seals running through the walls that distort vision, a bit like a genjutsu but with less... Less chakra, really. Or more?" Naruto rubbed her chin, pulling a brush from her hair -- and Sasuke _didn't_ understand that -- to lightly trace twelve patterns on the wall. Now that she had pointed them out, he could see them, and Sakura was no exception. "It's like seeing a wall of chakra, but the amount contained in these seals is small. A child could throw one up. As you approach the gates there's the same seal I used on you guys the other day -- it distorts voices, hides conversations. We've tried to safeguard against the majority of well-known dojutsu."

"Why?" Sakura asked, following Naruto as the girl led them out into the centre of the compound, flowers in full bloom. There were larger than normal butterflies suckling at the flowers, and then Sasuke was hit with the realisation that _someone_ had a _Butterfly_ summon.

And was that a lion attacking an otter?

"Arf!" Something barked at them, and Naruto scooped up a _fox_ cub. Were baby foxes called cubs?

"Because we want to be kept private," someone else answered, a young woman with cropped hair. It was pulled into numerous tight braids and all swept together into a bun, tiny braids all clumped together. Sasuke dragged his eyes down, gazing with some awe at the oversized _kama_ she dragged with her, a sickle with seals scrawled along the metal. She had small bells in her hair, and as she walked, Sasuke got the confusing sensation that she was -- _out of sync_. "And we don't want prying eyes taking our secrets. Uzumaki Kumi, head guard." 

Kumi stuck out her hand, and Sasuke shook it firmly. He was intimidated. She was a tall, statuesque woman, with rippling muscles and brown eyes so dark they were almost black. "It's nice to meet you," he said, overwhelmed by the sheer strength of her grip.

 _I have forgotten_ , he thought.

Forgotten what it meant to be apart of a ninja clan.

Forgot what it was like to have non-hostile weaponry held by someone else, the scent of blade polish and blood thick in the air; he'd forgotten what it was like to have a clan compound _roaring_ with life, with people so strong that they wore lounging pants and sports bras while holding a damn _sickle_.

He could remember Shisui, unexpectedly strong as he _shushined_ away, disappearing from sight -- so much that he was gifted a moniker, someone so adept in their skill that they were universally feared. 

Naruto was staring at him, worry in her bright blue eyes.

Naruto, the child of the Fourth Hokage -- and yet her legacy, her strength, was all _Uzumaki_ , the hive mind, the community, **the clan.**

* * *

Naruto's bedroom was much like the rest of the compound; wide, open, painted white with the palest blue waves. There was a curious stone kept right above her bed, a pink rock that glowed with power. It hummed. It was like static in the air, a confusing pull on her senses. "What's this?" Sakura asked, pressing one hand to it.

The stone was warm, throbbing against her chakra, and there was an echo of curiosity coming from the stone as its own chakra brushed hers.

"It's _manako_ ," Naruto said in a tone that meant 'stop asking', so Sakura stopped asking. 

Didn't stop her thinking, though. _A stone coated in seals above her bed._ _She must feed it chakra, because there's a piece of Naruto there_. _Is this the power source to the seals? And Naruto is the one charging them up? They're using her like a battery!_

 _Little leaf, little leaf_ , manako cooed back, and Sakura recoiled in shock, green eyes widening. _Come back, come back!_

"Idiot," Naruto laughed, placing her own tan hand on Sakura's pale one and pressing it back to the rock. Sakura was acutely aware of the press of Naruto's chest against her back, the scent of salt that clung to her skin, and the slightest scent of blood that followed most ninja. Her heart was pounding in her ears, blood coursing through her body, and _manako_ giggled again as she tickled at Sakura's chakra points. 

"It's a superpowered stone that you use to charge the seals," Sakura said, leaning into the gentle embrace. Part of her wanted to pull away, but a larger part of her was happy to have so much attention from someone. "I can sense... I can sense you, but there's so many different..."

"Everyone contributes," Naruto agreed warmly. "But as clan head I am responsible for looking after it. Well, soon to be clan head, anyway. Hiroyuki-jii is a little too old to protect it, and nobody comes in my room after the paint incident."

"The paint incident?" Sasuke asked, leaning over to press his hand against the stone too. Sakura noted, with some jealousy and some awe, that his pinkie finger was touching _Naruto's_ pinkie finger, which meant his pinkie finger was within millimetres of hers. 

"I used to be _quite_ the prankster," Naruto said with a mischievous smile, tackling Sakura to the bed and _snuggling_ her. Snuggling. And then -- _Sasuke joined in!_ **Shannaro!** Inner Sakura roared, and she could hear birds singing their happy tune. 

She was getting cuddled by her teammates.

By _Sasuke_ (Inner Sakura held up a 'victory' sign).

And Naruto (her heart ached a little, and Sakura wasn't sure why).

Hours later, Sakura was nearly half asleep, her belly aching from laughing so hard. Sasuke had never smiled so much, and Naruto had managed to convince him to wear something other than black -- a white yukata, cloaked with a blue haori. Sakura was even wearing a bright orange kimono, and Naruto was barely wearing anything at all.

"Naruto-chan," someone sang from outside the door, and then in walked Fumiko. "You're late for dinner!"

"Sorry, baa-chan," Naruto said with a yawn and a stretch, her cropped top riding up just so. Sakura realised, belatedly, that Naruto had _muscles_. On her _stomach._ She didn't have muscles on her stomach! She exercised more than Naruto, but she didn't have -- 

"See something you like?" Naruto said with a flirtatious whisper, blue eyes narrowing and a smile playing at her lips.

Sakura squeaked, burying her face in a pillow. "P-pervert!" she cried out, her hammering heart a war drum in her ears. _Yes_ , she thought. _Yes, I do._ _I like Naruto._

"You are attractive," Sasuke said, and Sakura turned to hit him with the pillow. He cried out in surprise. "Hey, hey," he tried, putting his hands up. "She's the daughter of the Yondaime. Of course she's attractive. He didn't get those weird fangirls for nothing!"

"The thing is," Fumiko said, and there was the same mischievous tone Naruto got, "Minato-chan was _such_ a wuss with the girls, from what I've managed to overhear. Now, Kushina -- she was the heartthrob. She must have been. She wasn't the Red Hot Habanero for nothing!"

"Stop ogling your teammate, perv!" Sakura cried, raising the pillow for another attack. With an explosion of feathers as she hit him the second time, the pillow tore open and spilled its guts around the room. 

And Team Seven started laughing, Naruto sprawled over the top of them like a terrible blanket.

* * *

Fumiko closed the door with her own little smile, and when the three unruly children showed up to dinner twenty minutes late, feathers sticking out every-which-way, she hid her smile behind her glass.

They were met with thunderous, raucous shouting, the food hall a building so large they had to utilise space-time seals to ensure they all fit. Already there were pregnancies and children, Kasumi now leading the way with her secret lover, but she knew of four other pregnant women, and there were six newborns to toddlers kept in the kid creche. 

Fumiko wasn't stupid. She knew that their standing in the village was tenuous at best, and they had yet - in over two years - to earn the respect of civilians, even with the modifications they had already implemented. They had crushed the civilian who sold Naruto rotten food when she was a child, but there was work to be done yet.

She wasn't much of a strategist, nor much of a careful fighter, but this was not a fight that could be solved with beating them down until they had respect. This was a slow game, a gentle win followed by another. This was plotting and behind-the-scenes planning. One step forward could be met with four steps back; one step forward could lead to the toppling of a few pawns, and give them more leverage; and one little child would join a Konoha clan with them, bring them to heel...

She gazed at Kasumi, the woman's swollen gut a reminder of, once more, female sacrifice. She then switched her gaze to Naruto, laughing so freely with her friends as she led them to the head table -- and wasn't _that_ a political stunt? -- and smiled once more.

The Uzumaki clan was matrilineal. Women _held_ the power, their chakra more potent, more controllable than the men. Konohagakure's clans did not believe in this, and perhaps even _she_ had questioned this power dynamic once, but it worked.

It was just a shame about the female sacrifice, their wombs holding precious cargo as bargaining chips. Kasumi had done her role throughout the years, securing loyalty from the other clans, and had bedded someone from a Konohagakure clan to continue this machinations. "Moves and counter moves," Kasumi had said over a game of shogi, her usual warm smile replaced with an icy blankness.

Kasumi was a good mother, a good Uzumaki woman, but most importantly?

Kasumi was smart.

 _Step one_ , Fumiko thought as Hiroyuki stood to make a speech, the room quieting. _Get the clans on board._

 _Step two,_ Fumiko thought, staring at Naruto. _Announce her heritage._

 _Step three,_ Fumiko tilted her head, glancing at the Uchiha. _Have her treated with the respect she deserves. The respect she's **earned**._

"--and welcome our two esteemed guests, Haruno Sakura," There was a loud, billowing roar from the Uzumaki clan, some slapping the table, some shouting their approval, "And Uchiha Sasuke!" 

_Step four_ , Fumiko thought, smiling once more. _Make the girl happy, for fuck sake._

Uzumaki women held the power. If they had to use their wombs as a bargaining chip... _For our future Uzukage, we'll do it_ , Fumiko recalled saying, and Kasumi had laughed, gestured at Fumiko's arm, and told her no.

"This is a man's game," Kasumi had said with a wan smile, moving a piece that left Fumiko with no counter move. "And you're too old for the game of men."


	20. The Chuunin Exam Begins!

Team Seven strode towards the Chuunin Exams test centre with confidence, a fluid unit as they moved in unison. Sasuke wore an Uchiha pin on his shirt, as well as the Uzumaki spiral. Naruto and Sakura wore the same pins, both girls being claimed by the Uchiha and both of Naruto’s team being claimed by the Uzumaki. Sakura, as a civilian kunoichi, may not yet understand the significance of such claiming; but as Sasuke was technically the clan head, it now meant Sakura held some political clout, especially given the reduced support from the Yamanaka clan. Hiroyuki had merely smiled when Naruto told him she was claiming her teammates so publicly, though Fumiko got a weird look in her eye.

Naruto’s hair was tied up, the striking red locks pulled into two tight buns and covered with lilac cloth. Bangs fell over her hitai-ate and covered her Strength of One Hundred seal. Her mask was pulled up to the bridge of her nose, leaving only her eyes visible and a band of tanned skin. Sakura had echoed her hairstyle, though opted for one bun instead of two. She was wearing her hitai-ate proudly, moving in front of her team as the leader. Sasuke smirked behind his mask, proud of how far they’d come, particularly as the other genin -- their competition -- moved out of the way. 

They were a team. They'd cracked the code.

Kakashi met them at the door, eye-smiling at them all. “My cute little genin,” he said, tone tinged with wonder as he gazed at Naruto’s shock of red hair. “You look a lot like your mother, Naru-chan. So cute!” He reached out and pinched her clothed cheeks, making them all laugh. “And Sakura-chan!” He gasped, pointing at her boots. “How do you run in those?”

“Girl secrets,” Sakura said smugly and holding up all their slips. “Team Seven, here for the Chuunin Exams. If you would let us pass, sensei.”

Kakashi gestured them along, his team moving together into the building. He wiped a fake tear from his eye and considered placing all his money on Team Seven making it to the Final Exams, before settling on half of his monthly earnings. If they did go all the way, he wouldn't have a genin team at all - so he needed to start saving!

Sakura dispelled the genjutsu on Naruto before the girl realised that there may have been a genjutsu present. She could tell the blonde was about to question the gaggle of people standing outside of the wrong room and ushered her along up the next flight of stairs. Amazingly, they’d managed this without attracting the attention of those too stupid to notice the genjutsu, and she praised the hardcore training they’d done the week before. Every time she was reminded of Naruto's troubles with genjutsu, she made a note to help, to try and sort it - and then never did. She probably should make it a serious priority.

Why did she keep forgetting...? Stress, probably. 

They handed over their slips and entered the room for the examinations, attracting more attention than they had avoiding the mock test. Sakura glared at anyone who looked twice, following an eager Naruto who was heading for… People from Suna. “Gaara?” she murmured to Sasuke, who nodded. She cracked her knuckles and rolled her neck, before putting on her game face. Wait… She was wearing a mask. She didn’t need to. She rolled her eyes at herself before eye-smiling like Kakashi did as she shimmied over.

Naruto went straight to Gaara’s side and slipped her hand into his. “Gaara-kun,” she hummed, enjoying the way he calmed her down without even knowing what he was doing. From this proximity, even without concentrating, she could tell he felt an odd mixture of pleased and confused. “It’s been too long. How are you?”

“Naruto and… Your friends,” Gaara said hesitantly, though little expression showed on his face. It was visible in the gentle knotting of his non-existent eyebrows, the way his sand jerked in its gourd before calming. Much had changed between the pair, and yet his sand... Was still so calm. “This is Temari and Kankuro.”

“Sakura and Sasuke,” Naruto said, just as non-explicit as him. “Guys, this is Gaara.”

Sasuke and Gaara immediately began glaring at one another over Naruto’s head. “Your hair is red,” Gaara eventually told her, unsure if she knew. It was only polite to inform her, he thought. _I would like to know if my hair was the wrong colour._ “It looks… Like blood.”

Temari shuddered, glancing at all three of the masked freaks accepting Gaara so readily. The… Sasuke – the male had no qualms glaring at Gaara despite clearing marking him as an enemy. She could see it in the way the male glanced at her brother. She didn’t recognise the girl with her brother. She thought she might suit being blonde. The other girl, obviously a civilian from the pins, stuck her hand out. “Haruno Sakura,” she said politely. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Temari turned her nose up at the hand. “Not now, pinkie,” she scoffed, reaching out to tug the redhead away from her brother. Before she could get anywhere close, the pinkie had her wrist in a vice-like grip, incredibly close to breaking her wrist in one jerk. The killing intent was palpable in the air. Green eyes, hard like emeralds, bore into her own jade eyes.

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto said, uncurling herself and tutting at her teammate. She stretched like a cat, eye-smiling at the blonde Sakura was holding. “So sorry, hime,” Her tone was distinctly mocking. Temari flushed red. “Come on, Sakura. Is that the Ino-pig you mentioned?”

Sakura loosened her grip and took a step back, before she turned her back on the enemy in a clear dismissal. Sasuke smirked even more, leading his team to the rest of the Rookie Nine. He could see a few considering faces looking at their team, and some leaking more KI than Sakura was. He added his own to the mix, and then Naruto started to play.

Naruto’s KI was like nothing he’d experienced before. It was wild; it was angry; it was rage personified, and as he stood, somewhat frozen, he could see violet, slitted eyes glinting in amusement. "Knock it off," Sasuke said immediately, mouth barely moving as he grabbed her hand and squeezed. "That's not needed, Naruto."

Gaara shifted, his sand getting antsy at Naruto’s obvious challenge. He joined in with a frown, glaring at anyone who stared at his friend (his _love_ , his _special person_ ) in the wrong way. He would kill them all. He had already told the not-Kazekage that he wanted Uzumaki Naruto kidnapping during the invasion. And if he didn’t deliver, he’d kill the not-Kazekage where he stood. 

The Rookie Nine were oblivious to this exchange around the room, arguing like children. “Forehead girl!” Ino cried, moving forward to hit her enemy in love. Sakura caught her fist and blocked the attack. “H-hey,” she said, taking in what she was wearing. “What’s with that outfit? God, you look just like the bushy eyebrow guy and his student.” She saw the Uchiha pin and stiffened in dismay, looking at all three of them now. Both females had been claimed by the Uchiha clan. The other girl Ino didn’t recognise, but she thought she might have been gorgeous under that hideous mask. Her skin was rich with tan and her eyes were like deep water. Even _Sakura_ looked gorgeous, and she could only see her eyes! What had happened?

“You might want to watch the noise you’re making.” A stranger interrupted her musings, though it wasn’t like her brain could comprehend what she was seeing anyway. Sakura looked… Like a kunoichi. Ino looked like a civilian in comparison, and _she_ was from a ninja clan! “And you’re letting off enough KI to terrify a small village.”

“Oh?” Kiba barked a laugh, glaring at the stranger with no small amount of frustration. The Uchiha duck-butt bastard looked… Pretty cool. In a weird way.

“You’re attracting a lot of attention.” Kabuto gazed at Team Seven. Orochimaru-sama wanted the Uchiha, but they all seemed quite interesting. “Take it from me – I’ve done this test a lot, and you’re making yourselves easy pickings. How about I show you my trick?” He removed a deck of cards from his rear pouch, smiling at them all. “They can tell you a lot about a person.”

“Haruno Sakura,” Ino said immediately, glancing at the girl she once called a friend.

“Haruno Sakura… Nothing really interesting,” Kabuto sighed. “36 D-rank missions, 5 C-rank missions… And one A-rank mission. Okay, a little bit interesting. Not much is known about abilities, though she has Earth and Water affinities.”

Sakura stiffened, privately begging them not to ask any more questions. “And her,” Ino demanded, face flushing hotly as she pointed at the unknown girl. “I don’t know her name!”

“From the hair, I’d say one of the newly-risen Uzumaki,” Kabuto said after a long pause where neither Sakura nor Sasuke offered Naruto’s name. “So that should narrow it down…” He flicked through his cards and pulled up, “Uzumaki Naruto. No picture. Became a genin in Konohagakure aged ten, training under two Legendary Sannin – Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama.” His voice took on a more awed, breathy tone as he carried on, “13 D-rank missions, 5 C-rank missions, and one S-classed mission. Wind and Water affinities. Proficient in medical jutsu. Daughter of Uzumaki Kushina. Heir to the Uzumaki Clan. You _are_ fascinating, aren't you?”

Sasuke yanked the cards on his teammates from the stranger’s grip, wordlessly setting them on fire using his fingertips. “That’s enough,” he snarled. Naruto had gone white beside him.

“ _Brats_!” A loud, booming voice shook him from his stupor, and he turned to look at the examination invigilator. He recognised the man, though he wasn’t sure where from.

Naruto turned to look too, recognising the man from the Bingo book. They were being invigilated by the head of T & I. From this, she could deduce that this examination was going to be a head fuck. She wasn't sure if she could be _more_ head-fucked after that exchange, but...

A head fuck it was. The questions she couldn’t answer. She gazed down at the paper in horror, using the pencil the sketch a small, swirly seal and a tiny burst of chakra to stop people from spying on her sheet. Not that they had anything to spy on. _What do I do_? She was no good at riddles.

_A village hidden in the trees has roots in the ground. How stable is the foundation?_

She mulled it over. **THE FOUNDATION RELIES ON THE CHILDREN** , not-her said in her brain. Naruto tried not to stiffen. Who-? **THE VILLAGE NEEDS CHILDREN TO GROW. DEAD CHILDREN ARE USELESS. YOUR TINY VILLAGE HAS A LOW POPULATION OF CHILDREN.**

 _Kyuubi?_ She wondered.

The voice laughed.

 _Your answer doesn’t make sense_ , she thought numbly, confused and concerned that her tenant was speaking to her. He did it so rarely that it was always a concern.

**THE ROOTS ARE YOUR ADULTS. THE FOUNDATION NEEDS CHILDREN TO CONTINUE THE ROOTS. A VILLAGE IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS BIRTH RATE.**

Well… It was the only answer she had. She sucked in a piece of the mask and chewed on it, writing down what the fox had told her. Why was the demon talking to her? It was almost as though it was being _friendly,_ even though she had never visited it in its cell. She had gotten close during training with Jiraiya – he threw her off a cliff edge and told her to call on the demon’s chakra to save herself.

She’d fallen into a sewer, but her feet wouldn’t work. She’d then woken up in the hotel room, with Jiraiya apologising profusely for her broken bones and internal bleeding.

She put her head on her arms, closing her eyes. Meditation, he’d recommended. She could speak to her tenant if she wanted to. Meditation…

She was in the sewer again. Instead of it being filled with acrid water, the ground was paved with thick green vegetation, plump flowers winding up the walls. She tried to move her feet, and they moved. Somehow she knew where to go, life blooming from each step she took; sunflowers, roses, lavenders all sprouting from the place her foot once was. “Kyuubi?” she called hesitantly, coming to the mouth of the corridor. This room was alive. There were bars at the far end, ivy wrapped around the metal like a caress. There was wind blowing through trees, and logically this just didn’t make sense.

Two glowing red eyes appeared from the gloom, blinking languidly at her. “ **Yes?** ” the demon fox purred at her, massive white canines flashing at her like a threat. It's - his - breath was hot, a searing heat that smelt of her mother's death. She shuddered. “ **Little brat.** ”

Was its tone fond? A smile tilted her lips upwards, and flowers bloomed along the ivy, pink heads like a firework in the darkness. The demon’s eyes moved towards the flowers. The demon huffed a laugh. “What is this?” she asked, glancing around the wildflower playground.

“ **My cage.** ” The demon closed its eyes. “ **You’ve been renovating.** ”

“It must be awfully lonely,” she said mournfully. She remembered the hatred she had experienced as a child. Once upon a time, she could have been like Gaara if she’d known how to meditate. “I don't think I can move you to the fox realm, though.”

One eye opened. “ **No,** ” it said, though she wasn’t sure why. “ **You have potential, brat. The next time you call on my chakra, I will give you a gift. I will cause you pain if it’s another damned clone that does it. Leave.** ”

It felt like a cold shower, its dismissal sending her hurtling back down the flora-filled sewer and into the examination room. She glanced at the clock, forehead damp with sweat. Her back was cold with it. She’d been meditating for nearly the full hour, and only answered one question! Oh, Kami. She just hoped she didn’t fail the final question.

Twenty minutes later, she was rushing around Sasuke’s apartment with her team while her henge’d clones took the places of them all at the Forest of Death. “We need rations,” Naruto said frantically, making the items thrown at her disappear into the scrolls. “And we need to move fast. I think the lady with the tits is onto us. Ero-sennin would _love_ her.”

Sakura grunted, stealing some of Sasuke’s ninja wire for traps. He had the good stuff. “I’m done,” she decided.

“Hn,” Sasuke was already moving for the door.

Team Seven disappeared into dust, moving in tandem to replace Naruto’s clones just as the Sasuke clone dodged a kunai aimed at him. Sasuke swapped places with the clone in a blur of hand seals, and accepted the slice along his cheek.

He stiffened as an unknown ninja _licked_ the blood from his cheek, his eyes flicking to Sakura. Sakura noted down the Grass headband and tried not to panic. Logically, they could scatter teams of clones into the forest, have them get the item required for this task, and have the clones return them to the tower where the _real_ Team Seven would be waiting. But it lost viability due to the chakra difference in Naruto’s clones compared to her own. It would be obvious that it wasn’t a Sakura clone to anyone _specifically_ targeting them – especially if said person was a Sannin. But for other genin? It would be perfect.

What had Naruto said? Reverse summoning if it got bad? She wasn’t sure how Naruto (of all people) had a summoning contract, but from the girls smirk she wasn’t so sure on how Naruto possibly had _two_ summoning contracts. She could assume that the first was either the Slug contract or the Toad contract… Would she have access to both? It was unlikely...

Then again... How many summons had she counted at the Uzumaki residence? The butterflies, the lions, the otters (two different branches, no less), the foxes, and _even_ the owls. 

Every Uzumaki had enough chakra to summon. Every Uzumaki underwent a reverse-summoning ceremony, and _nearly_ every Uzumaki had a summoning contract, even those lost to the passage of time.

 _It would be very much like Naruto to have two summons_ , she mused. _I can't see her using the Slug contract -- too tame for her, from how Tsunade-sama uses them. The Toads would suit her._ But Naruto _had_ scooped up the fox when they'd visited, and it _had_ beelined Naruto...

“Can I have my kunai back?” The female proctor’s voice broke her out of her musing. Sakura decided that this Grass nin must be the Sannin, and she was amazed that nobody else noticed it. _It's so obvious. It's so, so obvious._

Sasuke broke free of the “woman’s” grip, letting Sakura raise her glowing green hand to heal his cheek. Naruto was too busy shit-staring at the Grass nin to notice that they weren’t who they claimed to be. They moved as a unit to the hut that would issue them their scroll. The obvious choice to hold onto the scroll would be himself or Naruto. But if he gave it to Sakura…

“Give it to Naruto,” Sakura murmured into his ear, her arm on his. “We need to tell her.”

He gave a quick, almost unnoticeable nod and wrapped his hand around Naruto’s wrist. “Put up that seal,” he whispered to her.

Naruto gave him a look and grabbed a slip of paper from her pouch, before biting her thumb to draw blood. She wrote down the seal and pressed it on the back of his hand. “What?”

“Orochimaru,” Sasuke said grimly, mouth pressed as shut as he could manage. “My cheek. He’s here.”

Naruto, to her credit, didn’t react in the way they expected. She tilted her head slowly and then laughed, making the movement look as natural as possible. Sakura marvelled at how the seal worked; the laughter filtered through, but their conversation was just background noise. It was a blur that tickled her ears. She didn’t _want_ to listen, a static hum where speech should have been.

Sasuke swiped a finger through the still-damp blood, cancelling the seal as quickly as it had been stamped on his hand. He grabbed the scroll from one of the invigilators and pushed it to Naruto, who gave him a bemused look but sealed it away as he expected. What he didn’t expect was for her to channel chakra to her arm, revealing one of those weird spirals with the points and the spikes that _absorbed_ the scroll.

“That’s gross,” Sakura said on his behalf. He nodded in agreement. “Your skin… Stretched around it.”

“It’s in a safe place,” Naruto giggled, waving their concerns away. “Now to gate seven.”

They walked along to gate seven, Ino scowling at them all as they did. Sasuke was amazed he didn’t get the usual grief. He saw Shikamaru, the lazy genius, staring at Naruto like she was a puzzle. He didn’t like it. His blondie was _his_ blondie. The girl let him copy her jutsus and didn’t find it annoying like most people did. It was fascinating.

A claxon sounded and they walked into the forest, not scattering like most of the teams.

“The plan is this,” Sakura murmured, making them huddle around her. “Naruto, I need you to flood the forest with clones. Hundreds. Thousands, if you can. I need them disguised as me and Sasuke. Keep them close – if one dispels, we need back-up. Their role is to get scrolls – as many as they can, and return to us. Our plan is to find out what this Sannin wants while avoiding him.” She took a deep breath. “In summary, this is our first practice weasel hunt.”

Sasuke nodded, and after a time so did Naruto. “Will the forest mask my chakra? There’s going to be a massive output. We should start running as soon as possible, because I know any sensors will head straight here.” Naruto tilted her head. “Gravity seals off.”

Sakura and Sasuke both cancelled their seals, both of them feeling suddenly incredibly light. With a sharp, heady burst of chakra, Naruto summoned as many clones as she could – not dissimilar to the ‘Night of Two Thousand Clones’. In another burst of chakra, two thirds of them transformed themselves into her teammates. “Alright, listen up!” Naruto hollered as her clones started some in-fighting. “You guys are on a recon mission. We want scrolls. Heaven and Earth is what you’re looking for. Scatter.”

Her clones saluted as a weird blob of one and scattered as per her orders. She had no doubt half of them would get destroyed by the animals in the forest.

“We need a codeword,” Sakura murmured, before dragging her teammates close and whispering, “ _The weasel is being hunted_.” She paused. “And then you reply, _Team Dog wins._ ”

Both of her teammates nodded, and then they all jumped into the trees and began running into the forest. Naruto spread her chakra as much as she could, sensing various creatures and animals but no humans in the immediate vicinity. She wondered on what they’d do when dealing with a Sannin. She could summon Gamabunta, the Toad boss summon, but the forest got thicker and bigger the deeper they travelled. He wouldn’t be able to move. The Snake Sannin’s snakes, however… She could use the other one. The other summons that Jiraiya told her not to use in the exams.

She knew why. If it was discovered that the fox jinchuuriki had the Fox summoning contract, no matter how much the villagers had forgotten her, they would hate her.

The abuse would start again, and it wasn't just her, this time. It was her family.

She furrowed her brow, fixating on a specific chakra that was entering their space at an enormous rate. “Stop,” she commanded, and both of her teammates stopped. This proved to be her first mistake. A rush of memories hit her at the same time a giant snake swallowed her whole, dislodging her comrades and sending them hurtling through the air to another space. A wild part of her could just about sense them and someone incredibly dangerous. Her clones had been destroyed by Gaara’s sand, her friend clearly surprised to see them and unable to stop his sand reacting. The look of horror made her laugh despite the headache she was starting to gain. She would have to apologise.

Now… What did she do about being digested by a giant snake?

She bit her thumb and swiped blood across her arm, powering chakra to the blackened fox bite that was there. In a massive roar of chakra, the Beta fox summon appeared, making the snake summon explode in a plume of smoke. The fox summon wasn’t giant, not like the Alpha summon, and the Beta was _very_ lazy, just like the Alpha summon. He gazed down at her with his head tilted, large single tail swinging behind him. “Yes, little measly human baby?” he asked, before sniffing at the air. “More snake. Get on.” He dropped down to a lying position, letting the unusual summoner clamber on. With one almighty push and a jump, it tore through the thicket of trees in its way. Naruto turned and watched as wildflowers bloomed where it had destroyed.

“There, Momo!” Naruto cried, making the large fox alter direction and hurtle towards her teammates. Naruto slid off his back as the fox started attacking the snake summoner. “Guys,” she begged. Sakura was out of it. Drool wetted her mask, her mouth glistening, her big eyes glazed with tears. Sasuke looked ready to jab a kunai into his gut. She slapped them both. “Snap out of it! C’mon!” She could taste the KI in the air, could feel it settle in her bones, but she had felt worse. 

Sasuke snapped out of it first, shoving Sakura to the side where a volley of kunai and shuriken landed. This shove seemed to the do the trick. The girl stood on uncertain feet, but her eyes were resolute. She dropped into a mix of Naruto’s fighting style and Sasuke’s, the combination working in her favour due to the dexterity of her body. Naruto and Sasuke flanked her. “What do you want?” Sakura asked boldly, the fox summon dropping to Naruto’s side. It was the size of her parent’s favourite horse that took them travelling; massive and bulky, but with bigger teeth.

Sakura _knew_ she had two summons! And she was dead on the money with the fox summons! **Shannaro!**

“Ku ku ku…” The unknown person laughed, and then started to peel off their face. “I think you know, little girl,” they hissed, yellow eyes glinting with mischief. “Deep in your bones…”

“Stop with the games,” Sasuke said, tone bored despite the situation. “What do you want, Orochimaru?”

“So bold…” Orochimaru tilted his head, licking his lips as he gazed at the Uchiha.

And then he began his assault.

He disposed of the fox summon first, the animal disappearing before he could slice its head off with a concerned, fleeting glance at his summoner. He then started on the Genin. Jiraiya’s brat was assessing his moves, letting him engage with the one he wanted while the pink-haired thing tried to land hits. He could feel the chakra behind them. They moved like whippets, his precious Uchiha already at a high-Chuunin level and the civilian child at a low-Chuunin.

And then Jiraiya’s brat moved, and he – a Sannin – could barely keep track. _Definitely_ her father’s daughter.

He wouldn't underestimate her. He knew what it was like to be a powerhouse as a child, and he could not. Couldn't. _Couldn't_ let the kid get the slip on him, because he was _better_ \--

She managed to land a lucky hit, a bullet-like punch to the gut that sent him hurtling. She didn’t stop, the black and red blur sending him right back towards the pink-haired child, this girl trapping him in ninja wire. His precious Uchiha blew a massive ball of blue flame at him.

The mud-clone melted, and Orochimaru shot towards his prize.

“Sasuke!” Naruto cried, pushing herself as fast as she could to get between the Sannin’s extended fangs and Sasuke’s neck. The world had slowed, her only focus on getting between the two --

But instead of Naruto throwing herself in front of her teammate, Sakura did.

Sakura screamed in pain, the Sannin branding her with his cursed seal. Naruto saw red. Her chakra, depleted despite the clones, _sang_. Wildflowers bloomed in the clearing as red chakra overcame her own, the red chakra shroud pulling out her buns and making the fan of red hair swirl into two ‘ears’ of chakra. She moved.

Orochimaru moved too.

He was going to flee, but first...

A thick, bone-white chain shot out from her gut, the links winding around the Sannin’s body. Her red chakra funnelled along it. His neck elongated and his face shot towards the boy, fangs sinking into Sasuke’s neck.

Naruto howled in rage, more chains firing from her body, and the Sannin laughed a dark laugh. Oh, how he wanted this one too, this jinchuuriki… But alas, he could sense his presence had been noticed, and he didn’t fancy his chances against the demonic chakra shrouding her. His face would be melted before he got close enough to administer the seal. “Farewell,” he cooed, slipping through the chains like water, his body dissipating into white snakes. Naruto kept going, managing to destroy half of them before the Sannin disappeared, his snake forms burrowing into the ground.

 _Hit the ground_ , her brain thought, but...

It was animalistic rage that send trees flying, her tantrum destroying the foliage instead of the ground, and she just couldn't fucking _think_ \---

Silence. Her ears rang with it. More clones dispelled, overcome by the Kyuubi’s chakra. She was left with two quivering teammates, both of them bubbling with sickly purple chakra and their necks burdened with a seal she couldn’t comprehend. Her mind normally produced a counter seal, a better seal, a similar seal, but there was nothing.

Nothing.

Not even a counter seal.

Not even a _healing_ seal.

She landed behind them, breathing hoarse. Her hair fell like a cloak behind her. She summoned a clone and had it pick up Sasuke, picking up Sakura herself, and then they moved in tandem for shelter. Hot tears filled her eyes like a sin. She had failed to protect her precious people, and she wanted to be the Hokage of her village. She couldn’t even protect two people.

She found an alcove in the base of a tree and she quickly began setting traps while the clone worked on getting her two teammates comfortable. Sakura was whimpering, writhing while the clone made her a makeshift bed of a foam mat and lots of blankets. Sasuke’s eyebrows were twitching, his fingers spasming, but no sound of pain left his lips. The clone dispelled itself once its role was done. Naruto moved into the alcove and watched them, the hot tears finally falling.

She tried to heal them an hour in to waiting, her hands glowing a futile green. It didn’t stop Sakura’s whimpers and Sasuke’s eyebrows became more furrowed (if that was possible). Her clones returned with several scrolls which she sealed into her skin as she did the first. She sent out the order: dispel.

The memories hit her like a freight train, making her bite down on her arm to avoid vocalising her pain. She – her clones – had killed three teams altogether, slitting their throats when they were vulnerable or ambushing them in squads of nine clones. So… They had 3 Heaven scrolls and 4 Earth scrolls. And she had a vague recollection of stumbling on the tower at the centre of the forest, so she could find her way there.

But she needed her teammates to wake up first. They had barely been in the forest four hours, if that – she couldn’t just sit and wait for them to wake up. That would be akin to painting a big bullseye on their backs. She cursed, leaving the small alcove and stretching out her sore muscles. The worst part was she was _exhausted_. And now she had a long wait of staying awake ahead of her. She mustered up enough chakra to do two summons; one medium-sized toad, who came up to her chest height, and one tiny fox. “Gamakuro, Akachan,” she said with a tired smile, shoulders slumping. “I’ve… Got a situation. But I’m tired. Can you two defend? I need three hours, maximum.”

Gamakuro grunted out an affirmative, the little fox barking in reply. This little summon couldn’t speak in human tongue, but the kit was a wildfire in a fox form; she had an excellent control of fire and her nose was second-to-none. Between Gamakuro and Akachan, she could definitely get some sleep. “There are traps _everywhere_. There is one at 500 metres radius around this base. If it gets triggered, I’ll wake.”

“You owe me a drink.” Gamakuro told her, a little grumpy. “When you wake, I’ll take your friends to the big thing over there. Sleep, brat.”

Naruto tucked herself back into the alcove and while she knew it wasn’t safe, if she didn’t sleep she would be even more useless to her team.


	21. Team Seven Indeed

When she woke, her teammates were both still out of it. Sasuke was oozing vicious chakra. Akachan was nudging at her hand ever-so-gently, making Naruto instinctively go for a blade. The little animal barked at her with big green eyes and dispelled, leaving the big toad in charge.

“Naruto-kun,” he said. “Time to move. The old man is in the tower. Says he’s gonna’ sort out your teammates. Shift.”

“How long has it been?” Naruto yawned, tying Sakura and Sasuke together with wire before loading them onto Gamakuro’s back. She packed up their supplies and fell into line beside the toad, the creature taking a big leap forward.

“Fifty minutes. A little dog came – said your sensei felt your chakra.” Gamakuro wiggled non-existent eyebrows at her. “I told him about the hickeys.”

Naruto stifled her giggle, wind chakra cutting through trees to aid the toad’s path.

It took them an hour, but somehow they weren’t interrupted. Naruto ended up launching the unnecessary scrolls into the forest, seeing as how they didn’t get bonus points for coming back with numerous scrolls.

Once they entered the room, she opened both scrolls and chucked them away from her – she was overjoyed to see Kakashi-sensei appear. “We have a problem,” she told him, gesturing to both Sasuke and Sakura. “But they’ve got four days to recover, right?”

Kakashi nodded, frowning as he looked at the toad summon. “You have two summons?” he asked, cutting the wire and gesturing to Sakura. Naruto picked the girl up while Kakashi got Sasuke.

“They came to me to find out who I was,” she explained, following Kakashi. “So did we win?”

Kakashi snorted a laugh. “First team here, somehow,” he said with a grin. “And we had great fun trying to work out why there were over six hundred Team Seven’s running around.” He sobered up, the dead weight of the last Uchiha reminding him just how serious this was. “Speaking honestly, there is some concern about your seal weakening due to the burst of Kyuubi’s chakra that was felt by everyone in the tower. Jiraiya insists everything is fine; that you used more than that as a clone, once, and the seal was intact. And… As for these two…” Kakashi paused. It seemed like…

He dropped the Uchiha, raising his forehead protector to reveal his Sharingan. Naruto looked between them both, unsure of why – her eyes widened as chakra exploded out of the Uchiha, thick black markings crawling along his body as the chakra gouged deep lines into the concrete floor. “Sasuke,” she gasped.

Malevolent Sharingan eyes shot to her, and then the boy pounced. She felt like a deer trapped in headlights. “Sasuke,” she said, voice barely a whisper. One eye was shaped like a pinwheel.

He stopped within inches of her face, his expression morphing into one of confusion. “… Naruto,” he said finally, eyes flicking all around the room. “We… made it?”

The cursed seal started to retract, the hatred the boy felt diminishing at the sight of his sunshine-like teammate. The usual fondness he felt was muted, like it was trapped in the mist the ex-Kirigakure nin produced in his first C-rank mission and he couldn’t find his way through. There was nothing to grab, no emotion strong enough to clear the mist -- only anger.

“Ye-yeah,” Naruto said shakily, moving forward and nestling her face into his neck. She would have given him a proper hug, but with Sakura’s still-unconscious form in her arms, she had her priorities in order. “Orochimaru got away.”

Sasuke put one arm around her, glancing at his sensei and swallowing tightly. “Those chains,” he said. “Can you teach me that?”

“Chains?” Kakashi asked in interest, letting the two have their moment. He was sure they had an extra five minutes to be late.

Naruto furrowed her brow, withdrawing from the not-quite-hug. She held out one hand, focusing intently on forming those chains she produced so naturally earlier. “I… Don’t know how,” she grimaced. “I don’t think I made them. I think… the Kyuubi did.”

“Interesting,” Kakashi mused, eye-smiling at them both. “Your mother had chakra chains too. She restrained the Kyuubi with them. Come along, children. Sasuke, the mark on your neck is Orochimaru’s cursed seal. Sakura has it too. Not much is known about it, but what we do know is this: it makes you crave hatred, revenge. It preys on negative emotions. We will seal it today. Due to Naruto’s pace and her summons, you’ve got about four days to prepare for the arrival of other teams.” He glanced back at the pink-haired girl, still whimpering in Naruto’s arms. “And we’ve got four days for Sakura to wake up.”

“Why wouldn’t she?” Sasuke demanded to know, staring at both of his female teammates. Naruto had got them here – they had gotten to the tower in the first day despite fighting a Sannin.

How strong was she?

He could never compare. He _hated it_.

He brought a hand to his forehead, nursing the dark thoughts away. That wasn’t normal. His teammate was the Yondaime’s daughter and the holder of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. She had received specialist training by two Sannin. His teammate, the heir to the Uzumaki clan whose symbol he wore with pride. He didn’t hate it. Her strength was out of necessity, like his.

“She’s weak,” Naruto said slowly, gazing down at the girl and completely missing Sasuke’s little moment. “Not enough chakra, right?” She started to pour her own chakra into her teammate, as much as she could, the green glowing of her hands lessening Sakura’s whimpers.

Kakashi nodded, noticing Sasuke’s internal struggles and secretly being rather proud the boy could fight off the seal so soon. The rest of the walk was done in silence.

* * *

It took two days for Sakura to wake up, by which time three teams had made it to the tower. One team complained of finding a scroll right at the entrance to the tower.

Naruto and Sasuke had been by her side the entire time, apart from when his cursed seal was sealed by Jiraiya. Unlike Sasuke’s awakening, Sakura’s was a lot more muted, with Naruto placing glowing green hands on Sakura’s like a conduit. Sasuke had described it like being lost in a sea of people in his complex. A small blonde child led him out to the entrance of the compound, where a small pink haired child took his hand and led him through the village. The little girl had told him that he needed to wake up because his friends were waiting for him. And then he was filled with such panic that he just… Snapped awake.

Emerald eyes flicked open, lifeless and unseeing as they gazed up. “Sakura!” Naruto cried out, and those deadened eyes looked to her. Looked _through_ her. “Sakura?” she asked uncertainly. A sparkle. And then Sakura was there, staring at her with such warmth it nearly overwhelmed her.

“ ** _Naruto_** ,” the girl breathed, lifting her hand that Naruto was _still_ pouring green chakra into. “Stop, stop.”

“Sakura,” Sasuke said, so much emotion in her name that Sakura’s eyes welled up. “Sakura…” The boy pulled the girl into a tight hug. Naruto watched with tears in her eyes.

“How did you get out?” Sakura asked him once he’d released her, her hand moving to take Naruto’s on an instinct. “It was… It was horrible.”

“You both got me out,” Sasuke admitted, cheeks pinkening. “Jiraiya-sama has sealed mine. It feeds on hate. How…. How did you get out?”

“Naruto,” Sakura said warmly, glancing at the redhead. “And her absolutely moronic healing chakra. It didn’t heal me, you know. But it… It kept it away. For a bit.”

“It didn’t do anything for either of you in the forest,” Naruto said tearfully. “But baa-chan said it wouldn’t hurt to have something for you to look for and hold on to. She said normal chakra would have been fine.”

“You’re a powerhouse,” Sakura laughed, tossing her hair back. It was slimy with grease. From the looks of Naruto and Sasuke, neither of them had showered either. “I could feel you the entire time. And Sasuke. You were both so warm… It was so hard to get out.” Her eyes flickered between that awful dead look and the sparkle she’d gained as she thought on her experience. “I… I just hoped you wouldn’t stop feeding me chakra. I guess I got a bit addicted… Every time it cut out, I kept trying to find it again. Find you. But you never left. Neither of you did.” She marvelled at them both. “Team Seven, huh?”

“Team Seven indeed,” A voice cut through Sakura’s musings, the old man entering the room a stranger to her. He lifted a hand.

Naruto left her side and rushed the man into a big hug.

“Jiraiya-sama,” Sasuke said respectfully, standing and giving a short, sharp bow. “Sakura has woken up in a much calmer state than me.”

Jiraiya hummed his agreement, ruffling Naruto’s filthy hair and practically carrying the girl back to Sakura’s bed. “May I?” he asked, gesturing to Sakura’s neck. The girl moved her hair, revealing the black cursed seal ringed with red agitation. “There’s a one in ten chance of survival, Sakura-san,” he said seriously. “You have exceeded expectations to pull through, but it would be unwise to seal it away like I’ve done to the Uchiha’s. Not until we know if there’s going to be preliminary matches before the Final Exam matches are announced. Try and channel some chakra.”

Sakura furrowed her brow and channelled chakra to her fist. Burning pain coiled through her body, the chakra shrouding her fist a sickly purple. She barely managed to stop her cry of pain, stopping immediately.

“Just as I thought,” The Sannin pulled back, nursing his brow. “If there are preliminary matches, Sakura-san, you simply cannot rely on your chakra. Your chakra system is getting burnt up by it.”

* * *

"Lie still," Tsunade ordered, wearing a sterile white gown. Sakura trembled on the table, a thin white piece of tissue paper covering her genitalia as the head medic ( _and honorary Hokage!_ The future Hokage was _looking_ at her naked body!) performed a scan on her. "The bruising is... Extreme. You say you were barely hit?" she confirmed. Sakura nodded. "Most don't survive the Cursed Seal. Your entire body is fighting it, and in turn, the seal is fighting you. We have a counter seal we can perform, but there simply isn't enough time before the next stage."

"The Third Stage?" Sakura asked.

"No," Tsunade said, and her honey eyes were warm. Sakura could see why Naruto found a mother in this woman. "There are preliminary rounds. There's too many candidates for you all to progress to the Third Stage, which means... You might want to throw the match, Sakura. As we talk your organs are slowly healing, but if it wasn't for the brat charging you up with healing chakra... Well, I don't think you would have survived the seal."

"That's okay," Sakura said, feeling a bit numb. Inner Sakura was silent, and she hadn't heard from her -- since the sealing. "I can't do that to my team, Tsunade-sama. I can't do that to Takuto."

"Takuto?" Tsunade asked, whirring through the name of genin in the exams. 

"No one," Sakura said, sitting up slowly, the paper falling. She didn't care. She couldn't care about such a small thing when her idol, her teammates idol and mother, had just told her she couldn't fight. "I can fight, Tsunade-sama. I can. Jiraiya-sama said it's burning up my chakra, and that's fine. I've never cared much for ninjutsu anyway. I've done training with Naruto, she gave us both gravity seals. If I can just get them deactivated fully, I can always fight."

"What weight are you up to?" Tsunade asked, checking through the civilian kunoichi's medical records. 

"On my arms, fifty kilograms per arm, and on my legs I'm at thirty." Sakura privately blamed those gravity seals for the fact she didn't yet have a six-pack and a rippling abdomen like her teammates. "It's not much, but--"

"It's impressive," Tsunade interrupted, levelling her warm gaze on her again. Sakura flushed. "You're telling me you're walking around with the weight of two grown men clinging to you, and you're saying it's not much."

"Well, it isn't," Sakura said slowly. "Look at Naruto. She--"

"Naruto," Tsunade interrupted again, and her tone was serious now, "Is not a role-model. Naruto is not a goal. Naruto is an unobtainable standard. Naruto..." Tsunade smiled, shaking her head. "Naruto is a combination of ideal genes and rigorous training. You don't need to be at her level."

"I want to be," Sakura countered, chin raising in defiance. "I'm not going to drag my teammates down, Tsunade-sama."

"I'm not saying you are," Tsunade huffed, crossing her arms under her large chest. "I'm saying Naruto shouldn't be your goal. We both know that civilian kunoichi are disadvantaged. The statistics tell us that. You don't want to be like Naruto. You need to be _you_."

And -- well.

Sakura blinked and looked down at her bruising, mapping out each and every bruise. If she was Naruto, these would have healed already, the demon in her gut and her genetics predisposing her to heal rapidly ( _and literally within minutes of being_ _injured_ ).

But she wasn't Naruto.

Her parents weren't from a ninja clan, and that wasn't-- that wasn't okay, was it?

"Have a shower," Tsunade said gently, ruffling her filthy hair. "And if you tell anyone I was anything but professional to you, it'll be the end of your ninja career." 

Sakura managed a laugh, but her mind was whirring. Tsunade left, and Sakura padded over to the wet room off of the first aid bay. Even her feet hurt, calloused as much as they were.

If it wasn't for Naruto, she would have died. If it wasn't for Orochimaru, she would have been fine.

She was sick of her fate -- her pain, her life, her ability to perform -- being determined by others. She was Haruno Sakura, and she was in control of her own--

 _pain_.

"Fuck!" Sakura cried out, her neck throbbing and turning her legs to jelly. She collapsed, hands pressed to the mark as it sent shockwaves down her spine.

She gazed unseeingly as Takuto died, again and again, as Naruto got impaled, as she got bitten, as the kids at the academy bullied her -- and Sakura wanted _them_ to hurt, wanted them to feel like she did--

"Come to me for power," someone whispered in her ear, predatory and snake-like.

Sakura grit her teeth, dispelled the auditory illusion, and pushed herself up again.

As with life, the seed had been planted. After all -- if _Naruto_ could be trained by two Sannin -- couldn't Sakura receive training from _one_?


	22. The Preliminary Matches

The last two days of waiting were a bit of a blur, but the building filled up rapidly. From what Naruto could see, all of the Rookie Eight were there, though there were other teams as well. Gaara and his team had arrived earlier in the week. They were all called to a large concrete room to watch the end of the digital timer, where they were then informed that they would have to have preliminary matches due to the sheer quantity of genin who had made it through the forest.

In those two days, Sakura had attempted and failed to use her chakra on six occasions, crumbling from the pain before she could even attempt to wall-climb. She couldn’t even muster up enough chakra to cancel out her gravity seals and needed Naruto to create a paper seal she could slap on all four different points to neutralise them. Instead, she focused on taijutsu, using the two gruelling days to attempt to recoup her strength.

Sasuke had been a concerned friend, hovering over Sakura’s side the entire time and correcting her form where he could. He also worked as a training dummy, using only defensive forms against Sakura’s offensive forms. They classed it as a win when Sakura, using brute strength alone, created a small crater using Sasuke’s face against her fist. Naruto had smiled behind her mask, ever grateful that it wasn't _her_ face getting smashed in.

She was too adorable to have her moneymaker damaged.

Naruto barely listened to what the proctor was saying, too focused on the switchboard announcing their fights whilst lost in her thoughts. She needed Sakura to go first. The moment Sakura’s match was over, she could get the Cursed Seal of Heaven sealed away by Jiraiya, and Sakura would be okay.

Maybe.

_Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino_

“The first match will be Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino!” the proctor called, coughing shortly after the announcement. “Will the remaining genin please go to the viewpoints above the arena?”

“You got this,” Naruto urged Sakura, taking one of her hands and slipping her several explosive tags. “Doesn’t she, Sasuke?”

Sasuke gave his teammates a small smile and inclined his head. “Go straight on the offensive. She’ll be long-range – you want to be short-range. Don’t be afraid to fight dirty. You’re fighting with one hand behind your back.”

Sakura nodded, a new flame burning in her eyes as she gazed at her once-rival. Naruto was _proud_ of her, proud of her sweeping changes, proud of the kunoichi her teammate had become. She wasn't the girl who cowered behind them any longer, opting to take the lead and kick ass, and that was something that was so unusual to see.

Naruto and Sasuke watched from Kakashi-sensei’s side. The remaining Shika-Cho team were with them, the large boy munching down on chips while his teammate mumbled something about Ino being ‘troublesome’. “Sakura will lose,” Shikamaru said finally, all of them waiting for the proctor to announce the match. “Ino has an ace up her sleeve.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Sasuke said, tone cocky. “She’s not the same girl from the Academy.”

Shikamaru looked surprised, glancing at the other girl instead of Sasuke who'd spoken to him. Bright blue eyes fixated on his. “Nara Shikamaru,” he said lazily, giving the new girl a wave. “And you’re Uzumaki Naruto.”

“Yes,” the girl said finally. Shikamaru was struck by the boyishness of her tone. “Very astute of you.”

He got the feeling he was being mocked. His eyes narrowed, but the girl had already dismissed him.

“Begin!” the proctor called.

Sakura assessed Ino, cataloguing the damage the forest had done to her. The girl was clearly tired from it, whereas she had enough time to recover despite the hickey on her neck. “Well? Are we going to wait for you all day?” she asked, goading the girl. 

Ino flushed red, rushing forward with her fist cocked behind her. Sakura caught it and twisted, moving her body so she was behind Ino with a quick pivot on the balls of her feet. Ino bucked backwards like a trapped animal but didn’t connect as Sakura moved her grip to Ino’s weft of long hair, fingers white with the strain of holding the girl. Holding it tight in her hand, Sakura punched Ino in the face, making the girl yelp from how powerful the hit was. Sakura’s grip on her hair felt like she was being scalped, but the girl she once knew didn’t let up.

Another punch and a kick to the back of her leg sent Ino crumbling to the ground. With shaking hands, Ino sliced through her ponytail and freed herself from Sakura’s grip, shuffling away on her hands and knees like a scared child. Her right eye was swollen shut, her eyebrow bleeding sluggishly from a cut from Sakura’s fists, and her cheek was reddened with pain. “Wh-what are you?” Ino asked timidly, her blonde hair spread in a trail on the ground.

“I used to be your friend,” Sakura said, shaking her head. “But now I'm a kunoichi, Ino. I'm not even fighting at full strength.”

Ino suddenly smiled. “But I am,” she said, powering her chakra through her hair and willing it to wind around Sakura’s feet. “All that book knowledge and you’re still that same weak child, Forehead Girl.” She moved her hands into an unknown seal.

“It’s over,” Shikamaru insisted, starting to smile. “Nobody can escape Ino’s mind transfer jutsu.”

Naruto tilted her head, gazing down at the fight with a mounting horror. Ino’s body slumped forward, and then followed Sakura’s.

* * *

"Where am I?" Ino's voice reverberated through the mindscape like she was trapped in an echo-chamber. There was a dank blackness to Sakura's mind, a splash of water at her feet, and the acrid scent of a sewer. "Sakura...?"

Ino squinted, heart pounding in her chest. "Sakura," she insisted, seeing something... Yellow. Were those _eyes?_

Ino swallowed tightly, moving forward, determined to see what lay beneath Sakura's cold exterior. "Sakura," she tried again, tone betraying her nerves. Were her hands trembling? She'd never known such physiological responses to occur in someone's mind before. Usually they were detached, dissociated, and here she was: shaking, a cool chill running down the length of her spine. "Your mind is so dark..."

In the corner of her eye she could see a small, cherubic blonde girl. She was holding the hand of a little boy with hair as black as the gloom of Sakura's mind, black eyes watching her like a predator watched its' prey. The female child had bright blue eyes, and she saw a flash of Sakura's teammate: the pretty redhead, stunning even wearing a mask. There was no mask in Sakura's mind, and Ino recognised her. It was the girl her mama warned her away from. "Sasuke-kun," Ino whispered, faltering in her steps. The whiskered child frowned now, previously expressionless. 

"You shouldn't be here," not-Sasuke said in a tone that was... Wrong. Matched the girl, but it was Sasuke's mouth moving. _Sakura can't even visualise her teammates properly_ , Ino thought with a sickening feeling curling through her gut, a brick heavier than lead settling in her stomach.

"You should go," not-Naruto said in a little boy's voice.

"You're confused, Sakura," Ino said beseechingly. "Your mind is broken!"

**IS IT?**

"Yes," Ino cried out, spinning all around. The voice seemed to come from all around and yet nowhere at all, and she found herself wanting to _run_ , run from the small children that Sakura's mind couldn't even match _voices_ to, run away from the yellow slitted eyes gleaming at her from the gloom - she needed to escape Sakura's mind but for the life of her she couldn't _thinkthink **think** , _what did she _do---_

The blonde child took her hand, black eyes solemn. Ino could see that Sasuke's eyes were blue. Slowly, Sasuke's hair lightened to a bright red, and then to a burnt orange, and then to a warm shade of yellow. The blonde girl stayed blonde. "Sakura," Ino whispered weakly, and the yellow eyes got closer.

Closer.

Closer.

Pale skin framed by waist-length black hair, and Ino didn't know if the creature in front of her was male or female. Sasuke's hair was turning black again, but his eyes remained a frustrating shade of ocean blue. " _You shouldn't be here, young girl..._ " They hissed, sounding both like Sakura and not, and Ino could _see her._

A little girl sat on her bum behind them, sobbing into her hands.

Her pink hair covered her forehead.

Ino could _smell_ the cherry blossoms in full bloom, could recall the salty tang of Sakura's tears on the wind, could recall the silk ribbon slipping from her hands as she gifted it to the crying girl.

"Sakura, look at me."

Sakura kept crying.

" **Sakura, _look at_ _me!_** " Ino roared, the scream guttural and painful and **angry** because what had happened to her _friend--_

The girl holding her hand suddenly bit her hand, and several things happened at once:

The girl turned to a snake, a vicious viper going for her throat;

Sasuke's eyes turned black as coal, and suddenly blazed yellow;

They started to laugh, a hissing thing sounding both deranged and like a sickly hiss;

and Sakura looked up, and her emerald green eyes were _slitted_ and _yellow_ and Ino started to _scream_.

* * *

It only took a minute.

Black marks started spreading across what was revealed of Sakura’s face, her eyelids flickering with strain. Purple chakra surrounded her like a snake, curling and winding, uncurling and unwinding like a lover’s caress.

Ino started to scream. Sakura’s eyes flew open, golden slitted eyes framed by pink lashes flitting around the room. And then the girl moved as quick as a flash, landing a sickening punch on Ino’s face that sent her hurtling into the wall, cracks spreading outwards from the crater formed. There was an audible _CRUNCH_ that wasn't caused by the wall, and Shikamaru flinched.

“Sakura!” Naruto and Sasuke cried simultaneously, Sasuke itching to leap down into the arena and hold her back, Naruto trying her hardest not to panic.

Thankfully, Jiraiya the Sannin intercepted her next move before she could continue her assault on the unconscious Yamanaka. Sakura was writhing to get out his grip, purple chakra shrouding her hands as she attempted to punch the Sannin in lieu of her original target. The man murmured, “ _Sleep_ ,” pressing a piece of paper with a swirl-designed seal onto her forehead.

Sakura slumped forward.

“Winner, Haruno Sakura,” the proctor announced. Sasuke watched as Ino was carried off in a stretcher, as was Sakura. Debris covered Ino, dust coating her from the wall. Sakura hadn’t been using that much chakra while under the cursed seal’s spell but the crater was huge – deep fissures spreading out from the impact site like a spider’s web. _No doubt Team Seven would get billed for that._ “The next fight is between Akado Yoroi and Uchiha Sasuke.”

“She’ll be fine,” Kakashi assured the dark-haired genin, ruffling his hair. “Watch out for that one. He smells like snake.”

Sasuke understood immediately, his hackles rising as he walked down to the arena. “Begin!” the proctor announced. Sasuke waited.

“This will be easy,” Yoroi announced. Naruto could hear the smirk. “See, I’m unique, Sasuke, a bit like you.” The man began his assault, attacking Sasuke head-on. It took a flicker of Sasuke’s Sharingan for him to realise there was something not quite right about this opponent.

He felt… Sluggish. His chakra wasn’t responding properly. That… Was fine. “You’re taking my chakra,” he said quietly, focusing his chakra to his eyes and his eyes alone. Three tomoe span in each eye. 

_This has nothing on the drain when I was at the Uzumaki compound._

“Yes!” The man laughed, excited the genin had noticed so quickly. And those _eyes_ … He could almost see why Orochimaru-sama wanted him. “I can see why you’re the rookie of the year, Sasuke.”

A blink.

Sasuke moved.

Without his gravity seals, his speed was hugely impressive, and it was clear to the audience that Uchiha Sasuke was not playing with his opponent. He appeared behind the man and swiftly ‘chopped’ the back of his neck, sending the man tumbling to the ground. His opponent cried out and tried to kick backwards, making Sasuke leap back.

“Pay no attention to such idiotic things,” Sasuke said mildly. “Think about the fight, moron.”

Sasuke moved forward in another blur of black, slamming his foot down into the man’s back. A loud, sickening crack followed a second later. If he had to guess, he had broken the man’s spine in several places.

The proctor grimaced. Akado Yoroi was not moving, his ears seeping a clear fluid. “Winner, Uchiha Sasuke.” he murmured, giving the Uchiha an appraising glance. Finish it quickly – a clear sign of understanding the Shinobi lifestyle.

The proctor called the next match as Sasuke walked up the stairs. Naruto held her fist out for a fist bump. “Well done, Sasuke,” she said proudly. “You kicked his ass, teme!”

“Hn,” Sasuke smiled, slumping against the wall and watching his teammate. He hoped Sakura was okay. He hated not knowing these things.

The matches weren’t overly interesting to Naruto. She was itching for her own fight and for the preliminary exams to be over, but there was something… Not quite right about a genin from Kirigakure.

He had deep crimson hair and wide, emerald eyes. He seemed ruthless, combative, and had a penchant for flashy jutsu.

And his name was Uzumaki Jun.

Naruto felt like the young girl in the library again, pondering on the significance of a name. She watched with bated breath as Uzumaki Jun very nearly slaughtered his opponent without moving from his position with the use of thin chakra chains tipped with sharp spikes. Hiroyuki-jii wanted to put out feelers, encourage people to migrate to Konoha, but if they were as ruthless as this…

“Winner: Uzumaki Jun,” the proctor coughed. “The next match is between Inuzuka Kiba and Uzumaki Naruto.”

Naruto moved with confidence, blue eyes fixed on Uzumaki Jun. Jun stared back, eyes so magnificently wide she could probably see herself gazing back if she looked hard enough. He was as surprised to see her as she was to see him. An Uzumaki in Kirigakure…? Not unheard of, although she would assume he led an incredibly substandard way of living, as Kirigakure had been one of the Hidden Villages to help destroy Uzushiogakure. He must have a mother, then, or a father who was an Uzumaki and whom gifted him his name.

Uzumaki Jun strode to meet her, which was also unusual as his team was on the opposite viewpoint to hers. They paused for a few seconds, Jun’s eyes scanning over his… Clan member’s attire. Clan member. The girl had hair like his, with startling blue eyes. ”Nice to meet you, _hime_ ,” he said in a voice that didn’t match his face. It was deep like a man’s voice.

Naruto didn’t bother replying. Her gaze turned indifferent and she focused on her opponent, the ever-so-cocky Inuzuka. She knew him from the park.

She had been six years old, puffy-cheeked like a tomato with her spiky blonde hair. Kiba was a bully, picking on girls with Taro, his civilian friend. She had gone right up to him, her tomato-cheeks flushed with anger, and smacked him across the face. It had turned into a brawl, the Inuzuka scrapping like the pups he saw at home. With a lucky shot to his gut, he lost the fight.

“This is going to be easy,” Kiba said confidently. Akamaru, his ninken, barked in agreement. “Even if I _have_ to go easy on you because you’re a girl.”

Naruto frowned, putting one hand in her pocket. Kiba stiffened, but she didn’t remove anything.

“What?” the Inuzuka scoffed. “What’s with that lazy pose?”

Naruto held up two fingers. “I only need two fingers to defeat you,” She echoed Baa-chan’s words, coating her hand in visible blue chakra. “And I won’t need to move from this spot.”

Up in the stands, Kakashi eye-smiled while Sasuke huffed a laugh. Uzumaki Jun appraised this new relative with interest. He hoped he would be fighting her in the finals. He craved it. He would have to report back to the Mizukage about _this_ Uzumaki princess. It was a shame he couldn’t see any of her face – but with that hair and that headband he was confident she was Uzumaki Kushina’s child, the child offered up to be the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi in Konohagakure. Something about the eye shape. But then she may the daughter of Uzumaki Tatsuya, the merchant who managed to escape the massacre of Uzushio… His gaze was hungry. He wanted family again, someone to protect, and someone to protect him… Precious people to love and cherish him the way his mama used to, before she disappeared…

By the Hokage’s side, Tsunade smiled. Jiraiya scoffed as the Inuzuka child charged his apprentice. Tsunade really had drilled cockiness into the girl… Not that he didn’t doubt she would win this match from standing in one spot and only using two fingers. He could practically see the crater that her teammate had left doubling or quadrupling in size. And – BANG. Jiraiya winced, having been on the receiving end of Tsunade’s _and_ Naruto’s two-finger punch. The Inuzuka was sprawled against the wall the Yamanaka had slammed into, thick shards of debris crashing to the ground as another member of Team Seven destroyed council property.

His wallet was going to take the hit for this. He knew Naruto wouldn't pay it.

Kiba’s headband flew off with the initial impact, the metal dented from the force of Naruto’s flick. The boy’s dog was whimpering with fright next to Kiba. Kiba fell off the wall, his brain rattling in its skull. His ears rang. His focus was off. He pushed himself up onto his hands, and then onto his feet. He turned to face his opponent, perturbed to find three of her. The flick must have really knocked him –

Ouch.

A sharp chop to the back of his neck knocked him unconscious, the other clone holding Akamaru by the scruff of his neck.

“Winner, Uzumaki Naruto,” the proctor said with a smile. Two fingers and not moving from the spot culminated in two Shadow Clones doing a lot of the work for her. Useful trick, but mostly a result of her massively dense Uzumaki chakra and the thing in her gut. Showed a good level of strategic planning, though... The destruction of property wasn't brilliant, and did suggest she needed to work on damage-control.

Naruto walked back to her teammate, before pausing at Uzumaki Jun’s side. “Hello,” she said tentatively. The boy turned to her with a warm smile. It didn’t look out of place, which said a lot to her about his character. But he was a _Kirigakure ninja..._ “Erm… I’m normally blonde.”

Jun tilted his head, considering her crimson hair. “Your mother?” he asked.

“Uzumaki Kushina,” Naruto confirmed his suspicions. “And who are you?”

Jun raised an eyebrow at her. His eyebrows were the same shade as his hair, which was lengthy enough to be smoothed back. Enough to grab if she ever needed to yank his face to her knee. He was taller than her, which wasn’t difficult, and his one visible arm was littered with seals. They unravelled beneath her eyes; a seal for ‘strength’, ‘speed’, ‘storage’… Basic seals, but she got the feeling they had a shared ability. His seals were… Very extravagant. “The Uzumaki have a lot of claim to land in Konohagakure,” he murmured, inclining his head in a bow as his mother had told him to do if ever faced with an ‘Elder’ Uzumaki. “And due to how Clan Laws work, this… Well, it makes you Clan Head.” He smiled at her. “Not that there are many of us left, mind… But if you so wished it, you could claim me and seek refuge for me here in Konoha.” He gave her an exaggerated wink, giggling at what he’d said.

The girl didn’t laugh with him, taking his words seriously. She reached up and removed her mask, revealing her face. He was taken aback by how much she resembled the Red-Hot Habanero, although he would argue her father had played a lot in her genes too. “Are you misleading me?” she asked, expression and tone serious. Those whisker marks… Uzumaki Jun smirked to himself at the mutation. Perhaps… Perhaps she now contained the demon that her mother once contained. The Mizukage would want to know - but she was _family_ , and there was a serious argument going on in his head right now.

“He isn’t,” Sasuke said, appearing at her elbow to support her. They shared a look that was unreadable to Jun, but apparently meant something to Naruto that made her open her mouth, pause, and close her mouth again. “Though he may be joking. Under Clan protection laws, as the heir or clan head, you can claim relatives as your own. They can refuse, but given the ties between Uzushio and Konoha, you will face little opposition from the Shinobi council. Dependent on whether they’re trustworthy, of course,” Sasuke sparked some KI, glaring at this ‘Jun’ person. He didn’t trust him. Naruto had the heart to trust easily, hence why she’d shown this stranger her face. He was no such man. “While I’m rusty on clan matters, as I’ve never taken the mantle of Uchiha clan head, Kirigakure should… Well,” He shifted. “I imagine Kirigakure would disagree.”

Jun shrugged his shoulders, eyes sparking with interest. “Kirigakure don’t like me anyway,” he said lightly. “Though not enough for me to defect, Naruto-chan.” Her eyes narrowed at the familiarity. “It’s been interesting speaking to you.”

The dismissal was obvious. She raised blonde eyebrows and moved her mask back up. “If you want more incentive to defect, there’s three hundred of us waiting for you to come home.” she snarked back, taking Sasuke’s arm and dragging him back to her sensei. Her brain was a storm of emotions and thoughts, working overtime to understand what had just transpired. Coaxed into demanding ‘family’ back, and yet. And yet. It was only a name, after all. But Kumi and Fumiko and Mari-chan… So many names, personalities, to remember, people to love and people to protect. How could Uzumaki Jun refuse that?

“What?” Jun asked, face paling as he followed the pair. “What does that mean?!” His heart was pounding a war drum in his chest. Three hundred _what_? Three hundred family members…?

Naruto shot him a glare, pushing her index finger into his chest. “If you truly care enough to find out, you’ll meet me by Ichiraku Ramen tomorrow,” she said in a tone that booked no argument. “And by ‘me’, I mean me and Uzumaki Hiroyuki. Don’t try anything, _pretty boy._ ”

Jun mulled the name over. Hiroyuki… The former Uzukage? He nodded frantically, losing the cool demeanour he had displayed in lieu of gazing at the clan heir in a new light.

It took a lot of time for the preliminary exams to be over.

“If the winners of these matches could come down to the arena,” the proctor called, coughing into his hand. Sasuke and Naruto went down together, their steps in sync. “Thank you. The first match will be Uzumaki Naruto versus Hyuuga Neji.” Naruto glanced at the Hyuuga. He had been brutal in the match against his cousin, but he was branded with a seal for being born to the wrong part of the clan. She didn't understand it, never would, but she empathised with being second best.

“The second match will be Sabaku no Kankuro versus Aburame Shino. The third fight will be Uzumaki Jun versus Kinuta Dosu. The fourth fight will be Sabaku no Temari versus Nara Shikamaru. The final match of the first round will be Sabaku no Gaara versus Uchiha Sasuke. Due to the number of participants, Haruno Sakura will fight the victor from the third match. The winners of each match will move forward to the second round. These will be announced on the day.” He paused, took a deep breath, and carried on, “This exam will be held in a month. Even if you win the entire affair, you may not be promoted. You will judged on many things. Similarly, if you lose your match, you may be promoted due to the way you handle yourself.”

Tsunade stepped forward, expression grim. “These exams act as the last clarion call for showing your village’s strength. Do not disappoint them. Due to the nature of these exams, failure can and will result in your death.” She paused, glancing at the Hokage. “There will be no intervention, unlike what was seen in these preliminary rounds. It is a fight to the death unless you forfeit.”

* * *

He wanted them all.

Team Seven were a _marvel_ ; the team that typically received the deadlast and the two smartest in the year, and yet... _Kobayashi Takuto_ , he thought, the memorial stone a winking reminder of all the dead. The deadlast. 

Haruno Sakura's weak point.

Every person had them, that was true. Haruno Sakura had Kobayashi Takuto. Uchiha Sasuke had Uchiha Itachi. Uzumaki Naruto... Uzumaki Naruto's weak points were her teammates and former teacher, none of whom were easy points to exploit.

_Uzumaki Kushina_ , just below some civilian kunoichi. _Perhaps there is a weakness yet_.

Just as quietly as he appeared, Orochimaru disappeared, a laugh dancing on the wind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay in posting. Life is very weird at the moment.


	23. Ren and Jun

Naruto was uncertain about when Uzumaki Ren joined their mission to meet Jun. “So what’s the relation?” she asked softly. Ren didn’t speak much, soft-spoken and shy, though she had the impression that wasn’t necessarily through choice. “You were… Really insistent on meeting him.” They made an odd trio. Ren didn’t get involved in clan politics much, so Naruto knew little about her. Her eyes, though… They reminded her of Jun, if she was being honest with herself. The woman was tall and imposing, though she walked with the grace of a dancer.

“He’s my son,” Ren said, barely looking up to maintain the conversation. “I… Abandoned him to them.”

“Now, now,” Hiroyuki said, cuffing the woman around the back of her head. “None of that. You don’t need to judge yourself… Your kid will judge you enough. You had your reasons.”

Naruto couldn’t think of anything to say. Jun might immediately reject them upon the discovery of his mother. Had she discovered Kushina was alive after letting her live in misery… Well, she wouldn’t react too kindly. “We’re nearly there,” she said quietly, laying a supportive hand on Ren’s arm. “It’ll be okay.”

Jun was waiting outside of the ramen stand, his emerald eyes immediately finding the distinctive trio. He was taken aback by Naruto’s blonde hair, though he felt it suited her more than the red. She really was a pretty sight. Uzumaki Hiroyuki was tall and foreboding, his purple eyes fixed on Jun’s.

It was the woman between the two that truly caught his attention. “Mama,” he whispered, unsure if he was right. Ren looked up. “Mama,” he said, louder this time as he started to walk towards them. The walk became a run, and then he had his mother in his arms. She towered over him still, though in the four years she’d been gone he had grown quickly. “Oh, gods, you’re alive,” he said, voice strained. “Mama…”

“Jun,” Ren said quietly, laying one hand on his mop of red hair. “I’m sorry.”

Naruto looked away from the scene, her own heart _clinch_ ing uncomfortably. 

She met Hiroyuki’s eyes and the older man inclined his head in the general direction of the Training Grounds. She smiled. “We’ll leave you to it,” Hiroyuki said in a voice that booked no arguments. Ren’s eyes were closed, but she nodded her head. “I need to ensure Naruto-chan is in top condition for the third phase of the exams. You’re welcome to view the Uzumaki clan grounds, Jun-san.”

Jun made a noise of agreement; Naruto took it as a dismissal. With Hiroyuki at her side, they scarpered.

* * *

“I am your opponent, Naru-chan,” Hiroyuki said in a gentle tone. Naruto seemed distant: waiting. _She might want her mother back_ , he thought with a furrowed brow. It can’t have been easy witnessing a reunion like that while her mother remained cold and alone in a Kunoichi graveyard. They would have to visit after. “Focus.” She was so much like her mother it hurt. If he squinted, if he tilted his head, the tan skin and burnt yellow hair (the dye fading more than he would like) became pale flesh and the vibrant red of his granddaughter.

_He had done this before. This was familiar. “I am your opponent, Kushina-chan,” Hiroyuki said in a firm tone. Ever the scatterbrain, Kushina was – just like his Amaya._

“Of course, jiji,” Naruto said with a cheeky grin, dropping into the new Uzumaki stance she had been learning from him. Hiroyuki nodded firmly at the proper stance, slipping into the opposing style, katana hanging loosely from his hand.

_“Shut up, jii,” Kushina said with the impertinence of youth. “Just cos’ you’re the Uzukage, ‘ttebane!”_

“Begin,” Hiroyuki said, Naruto stood unflinchingly as he body-rushed her. He expected the Hyuuga to do the same, as did she, and as such they had to focus on such close combat. It wasn’t her style, but it was his.

_With a war cry, Kushina forced her hands out and caught his sword as he brought it down to split her in two. She was the best healer of her generation thus far, even at the gentle age of six. Her hands were coated with blood, but there was a burning smell as her own chakra focused on cauterising the wounds even with the blade keeping them open._

Naruto closed her eyes. When she reopened them, her natural instinct to catch the blade left Hiroyuki stuck, his amethyst eyes narrowed as ghosts continued to assault his memory. Naruto wore gloves, but even the best shinobi gloves could not withstand the sharpness of his blade.

 _“Silly girl,” Hiroyuki said with a huff, Kushina dropping the blade and dashing out of the way with his momentary lapse of concentration. The **plick-plick-plick** of her blood followed her, creating a trail in the white, white sands of Uzushio_.

“Just like your mother,” Hiroyuki said with a smile. Naruto grinned back, gripping the blade tightly as she lifted one foot and contorted her torso with the grace of a dancer. The chakra shroud on her leg was barely visible, but it was enough to make him loosen his grip on his sword and take a step back.

“Better,” she said with a growl, the chakra coating her foot suddenly becoming denser than the rest. It seemed to extend from her body and caught him in his side, sending him hurtling towards the thick forest surrounding this training field.

 _The blood coated the white sand. Kushina, only a small girl in size, was unaffected by the blood loss, and an expert in using seals in battles. Hiroyuki gazed after her with a smile, unsure as to why she was grinning, when –_ **_BANG!_ **

A rush of yellow, and Naruto met him as he grappled to get his footing. _BANG_! With a small huff of air, she rushed her roundhouse kick with a sharp uppercut to his jaw.

 _Explosion seal_ , _Hiroyuki thought with mere milliseconds of thought left. He was thrown twenty feet into the air, white sand melting to molten glass from the sheer heat Kushina pushed into one tiny seal._

Hiroyuki didn’t even flinch when Naruto appeared above him, a spinning axe-kick sending him flying back to earth. He tried to move his arms to protect himself, but… His – his legs twitched, moving into a cross-legged position. _What?_ He thought, blinking up at the sky. An eagle was circling, and then it dived for its prey.

_“Ahahaha!” Kushina laughed, doubling over from how hard she was laughing. “Gotcha jiji!” she cried with all the joy of a child. Hiroyuki disappeared in a poof of smoke, replaced a fish from the ocean. “Jiji-?” Kushina’s brown eyes widened, but the little girl didn’t even get to blink before a sharp chop to the back of her neck sent her falling to the floor, unconscious._

Naruto stood above him, and for a moment, just a moment, he thought he could see the future. In his head he saw her cloaked with the Kage hat, billowing robes over her shoulders, and a little sign on the hat that said ‘Uzu’. “Naruto,” he said, limbs trembling as he tried to control them. “I’m so proud of you.”

Naruto dropped to her knees with a gentle smile, hands glowing green as she corrected the nerve damage she’d caused.

“When did you do that?” he asked, feeling his age as he lay on the ground. He was nearing one-hundred years of age. Did that make him the oldest shinobi alive?

“With the kick when you were in the air,” she said with the impetuousness of youth, grinning widely at her victory. “For Neji-san, I think it will be pretty disastrous. The Hyuuga rely so heavily on their taijutsu.”

 _Amaya… You would be so proud of our grandchild_ , he thought, tearing up slightly as the young lady helped him up. _I am tired._ “I think,” he said, breathing heavily. “It is time for this old man to retire, Naru-chan.”

“Jiji?” she asked, gazing up at him with her father’s knowing eyes. “Do you think I’m ready?”

Hiroyuki pulled her into a tight hug, nodding stiffly. “More than ready,” he agreed with a warm smile. “And I cannot wait for the world to know just who Uzumaki Naruto is.”


	24. Shadow Clone Jutsu!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay. The global situation at the moment is draining for us all, I think. 
> 
> I thought I'd give you a double-update to apologise!

It took three days for Sakura to recover from the sealing of the cursed seal, with Naruto hovering at her side the entire time. Naruto resumed wearing her normal clothes, her whiskered cheeks visible to world. The masked look wasn’t for her. “Sakura,” the blonde-haired girl said in relief as she saw her teammate packing her belongings at the hospital. “You’re okay… I’m so glad.”

Sakura pulled her teammate into a tight hug and carried on, giving her a warm smile. “You betcha,” she agreed. “And now it’s time to start training, Naruto-chan. I don’t know if you know anything about the Hyuuga Gentle Fist attacks, but Hyuuga Neji isn’t someone to be careless with.”

“I’ve already asked Ero-sennin to help me,” Naruto confessed with a cheeky grin, rubbing the back of her head. “He’s… He’s busy, but that’s okay. D’ya wanna train together? Kakashi-sensei is training Sasuke.” As much as it pained Naruto, she wrote Sasuke a fact file of everything she knew about Gaara for his fight. She had also done the same for Gaara; however, that behaviour was seen as treason, so it would never be something her nor Gaara would ever disclose that she’d done. "Hiroyuki-jii isn't well. He keeps seeing ghosts."

Sakura rubbed her neck, eyes becoming distant. “We need to work on my chakra control,” Sakura said shakily. “There’s… There’s bursts of energy. Jiraiya-sama says the seal is so strong and he’s included a – a ‘matrix’ to convert the nasty chakra to my own, but there’s too much of it.” She laughed. “I don’t know how you cope with all this… All this _power_ , Naruto. You and Sasuke… I think I’m finally starting to get on that level.”

“I can help,” Naruto said quickly. “You’ll really struggle with medical jutsu if you don’t work on it, Sakura.”

Sakura’s eyes darkened, fists clenching and unclenching. “Naruto,” she said gently, hoisting her backpack of belongings up. “I… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it again.” She paused. “Tsunade-sama had a Hyuuga medic look at my chakra pathways. Things aren’t good. By the time of the Final Exams, they’re hoping I’ll be able to do Academy style jutsus semi-effectively, but I don’t have that control to execute them. I have too much chakra compared to what I’m used to. I used to be so weak… But it was the lack of chakra that made my control nearly perfect. Now I can’t even do a _bunshin_ without them looking dead.”

Naruto considered this. She then burst into an explanation of the _kage bunshin_ technique, showing Sakura the required hand seals. “Do it,” she ordered. “We’re in the right place if it goes wrong.”

Sakura moulded her chakra with no small amount of difficulty, closed her eyes and _wished_.

Poof.

“ _Shannaro_!” her clone cried, looking around frantically in the hunt for something to attack. Hm. Apparently there was nothing.

Sakura opened her eyes, feeling a bit woozy but at the same time madly satisfied. She watched with horror as Naruto yanked her clone by her - it’s - hair, burying a kunai into its head.

And Sakura had a memory of a kunai being buried into her head.

“Fuck,” Sakura cursed, starting to laugh. _Now_ she knew how Naruto was so strong. She had the ultimate gift. Memories, thousands of memories if she wanted, without having to lift a finger. “That took a lot out of me to do, and you just killed her!” The girl fist-bumped the air. “Let’s do this.”

A new fire burned in her gut. She could feel the tug of the seals, her body re-fuelling after that bout of excursion. Her reserves were brimming over.

Naruto grinned and looped their arms together, dragging the girl to the training grounds to go through their new training regime. “Hey, Sakura?” she asked. “Ino has been asking after you. She…” Naruto furrowed her brow. “Hinata, the girl that Neji really hurt, they’re both interested in training with us too. Hinata has fantastic chakra control and she’d be able to see your chakra network. It could really help us.” Naruto put her bag down and removed a small plastic ball from it. Jiraiya had given her encrypted instructions on her father’s technique _Rasengan_. Every step was in a different code, and she had to work it out in order to progress. She got the feeling that ordinarily, she would have cracked the _Rasengan_ in 3 days. With Jiraiya’s added game, it would probably take her a week. All that training with the balloons and the ball would eventually pay off.

Sakura considered this, watching Naruto… Funnel chakra into a ball? Unusual chakra training exercise. “You could learn things about Neji that you didn’t notice in your exam,” she said decisively. “And I can work on Ino-Pig. What chakra training exercise would you recommend?”

“Make another clone and work on sticking a leaf to your forehead,” Naruto instructed, summoning numerous clones to work on popping the plastic ball. “It sounds boring, but…”

Sakura sighed but put her hands together, unleashing all of the pent-up chakra coursing through her. The seal tugged again, more chakra refilling what she’d used, and thirty clones appeared behind her. She stumbled slightly but remained standing. “Wow,” she whispered, counting each pink-haired clone with no small amount of awe. _Sasuke_ couldn’t make thirty yet! He probably could now with the seal, but… If this was the power Orochimaru could give her… What else could she gain from him?

“Wow!” Naruto cried out, beaming at her teammate. “That’s amazing, Sakura-chan!”

Sakura turned back, smiling at her beloved blonde. Such thoughts were treason. She wasn’t sure how much of it was the emotional aspect of the Cursed Seal, but… She had always been a bright girl and interested in experiments. “I know!” she gushed, ordering the clones to start working on the chakra exercise and picking up a leaf herself. “Tsunade-sama doesn’t think my chakra control will ever get back to my previous level.” She sat down next to Naruto, focusing on sticking the leaf to her forehead. “Which… Is disappointing. I don’t think I can be a front-line medic.”

“Sakura,” Naruto said slowly, one of her clones successfully bursting the ball. She dispelled them all and popped her own ball with their memories. “Tsunade-sama didn’t think I could get as far as I did with healing.” Naruto closed her eyes, pain flitting across her face before she masked it with a soft smile. “Because she told me I couldn’t do it, I did it. I’ve… I’ve given you one of the best ‘cheats’ I’ve got. But the rest of it is hard work.” Blue eyes opened and fixed on Sakura. She was frozen to the spot. Raw emotion flashed across those pretty eyes. “You’ve been told how amazing you are throughout the Academy, but to put it simply, you’re _not_. You’re a civilian. How many times have you been told you can’t be a ninja?”

Sakura considered telling her exactly how many times she’d been told – twenty-three – but didn’t interrupt Naruto.

“This is the exact same _fucking_ thing, Sakura-chan. You are not Rock Lee. You have a – slightly sore and damaged – chakra system, but you still have chakra. You can be a genius of hard work if you just try. But trying is the hardest thing – _I know that_ – and you need to wake up every day and think of why you’re a ninja, what made you choose this path. Let that guide you in regaining that control.” Naruto smiled at her, her eyes lighting up. “You have grown so much, Sakura-chan. I’m proud to call you my teammate. You _can_ do this.”

Sakura’s eyes were suspiciously wet, but she didn’t let the tears fall. “Thank you, Naruto,” she whispered, the leaf having remained stuck with chakra for the entirety of the girls’ speech. “Thank you for believing in me.” The thought remained, however… What else could Orochimaru give her?

Naruto nodded. The girls worked in peaceful silence for several hours before they were interrupted by Ino and Hinata, the two girls quiet in their approach. From the tension between Sakura and Ino, Naruto was immediately uncomfortable. She shared a look with Hinata and took the pale girl’s hand, dragging her to the opposite end of the training field. “So, Hinata,” Naruto said with a cheeky smile. “What can you tell me about your family’s style?”

Hinata stumbled over her words once, twice, three times – and then, “ _I want to be your rival_ ,” the girl said with a new fire in her eyes. “Y-you’re so strong, Uzumaki-san. N-Neji-niisan has been training so hard when he found out he was fighting you… I want to be your rival.” Her white eyes were narrowed, her hair slightly longer than it had been when she was fighting, her clothes more fitted – and in the same cut as Naruto’s that she wore during the exams, but in paler colours. _A rival_ , Naruto thought. _And yet she is copying me._

“I can’t be your rival,” Naruto said gently, shaking her head. “You know you don’t compare to me, Hinata-san. We’re too different in style. But- but I can be your friend.”

Hinata considered this, faltering only slightly at the snub. “Fine,” she said with a small frown, looking down. “Friends.”

Naruto wasn’t thinking when she reached out to tilt Hinata’s chin up. “There,” she said with another cheeky smile. “Much prettier than the top of your head. Wanna’ spar?”

“Y-yes,” Hinata said, stammering again, cheeks flushed. And they began to spar.

If Naruto’s style was like a dance, it didn’t compare to the way Hinata twirled, span, bounced out the way of her jabs. However, Naruto had gone toe-to-toe with an S-class criminal, and Hinata lasted about a minute before she had a kunai pressed to her neck. “Good,” Naruto said in delight, Hinata’s chest heaving with exertion. “Shall we try again?”

And try again Hinata did.

They were joined by Sakura and Ino about an hour in, Hinata’s cheeks flushed red, dirt smeared across her pale clothes. Naruto, in comparison, had about twelve tenketsu blocked, but the sheer volume of chakra coursing through her system reopened them before she felt any real damage.

“Sakura, work with Hinata,” Naruto said, finally tying her hair back. “She’s an excellent offensive fighter, just like you. Ino, we’re going on the defence. Anything goes.” She removed two bells from her hip pouch, handing them both to Ino. "You have to get these bells. Ino, this is going to really push your stamina, because no offence - but it was _terrible_ in the prelim."

Sakura shared a look with Ino and the blonde finally smiled, nodding at Naruto. “Okay, whiskers,” she said with a friendly smile. “Blondes always have more fun!”

Naruto gave her a pretty smile. "We have one minute to hide," she decided. "Sakura, focus on channelling chakra to your hits. Hinata, focus on being on the offence. It's not your style and it's not your teams style, but you're too damn proper."

Sakura watched her teammate with a small smile. _A natural leader_ , she mused. The two girls automatically deferred to Naruto despite not knowing her. Hinata's cheeks were flushed red with exhaustion and yet the girl nodded, her eyes full of fire. She wanted to fight, wanted to learn, wanted to change herself. And here was Sakura, broken, battered, and a little bit more than beaten - and yet Hinata was _close to death_ , and her own cousin had put her in that position. 

* * *

By the end of the day, the four girls were sat by the river side, the sun shining red over the flat floodplain. "Thanks, Naruto," Sakura said tiredly, resting her head on her teammates shoulder. "That was fun."

Hinata was quiet, but let out a soft hum of agreement. "Yes," she said finally, lungs hurting from exertion and breathing staggered, "Yes, it was fun."

"You all did well," said Naruto, who looked unaffected by their battling. Well, _almost_ , if not for the jagged cut along her trouser leg. "We did well."

"You're like your father," Ino whispered, watching as the sun burned Naruto's copper hair red. "Do you know that?"

"Yes," Naruto said with a hum, dipping her head. She didn't tense, didn't lurch as Ino expected her too, merely accepted the words for what they were: compliments of the highest order, spoken by someone not yet in the know.

* * *

Later, as Ino talks about her day to her father, she can't help but state: "They want her to be the next Hokage, you know."

"I cannot see Uzumaki Naruto being the Fifth Hokage, my sweet," he says with a soft voice he reserves _just_ for her. "She is much too young to take over the hat for the Sandaime -- the Sixth Hokage, perhaps."

"She looks like her father," she says, watching as his expression flits -- _so_ briefly -- to shock, to calm. "People say I look like you, daddy, but she is her father's daughter."

"She is her mother's daughter," he says, and Ino purses her lips, ready to object, "You don't know her mother, but I did. The world collapsed at her feet with one glance. She was a beautiful thing, powerful and _angry_... It made sense that Minato-san was the only one she had eyes for." Ino listens now, her blue eyes (just like his own) wide and interested. "He was... He was steel to her flame. He was tempered steel, a weapon of mass destruction. It was a different time, Ino. The Fourth Hokage was civilian-borne, a child genius -- his intelligence was unparalleled."

"You said he was kind," she countered, and that's what Naruto was: kind. 

"I lied," Inoichi says, and Ino raises her eyebrows. "Namikaze Minato was a hard man. Difficult. There is a reason he was infamous for killing one-thousand Iwa ninja -- men, women, children. He showed no mercy, no reluctance. Instead of --" and he pauses, glances around, and then winces. "Instead of sealing the Tailed Beast into his dying wife and losing Konohagakure it's jinchuuriki, he sealed it into his newborn babe."

He watches as she flinches, recoils, mouth hanging open. 

He continues, "When you say that Naruto-chan is like her father, you are telling me that she is ruthless, that she cares for the Will of Fire, and I hate to say this, sweetheart -- your observations are wrong."

"That's not fair," she says hotly, just like her mother. _Like all female nin_ , he muses. 

"Your observations are wrong," he repeats, and it's still in that soft, sweet voice that she _hates_. "Uzumaki Naruto is nothing like either of her parents. Uzumaki Naruto was born to rule... and raised to fail."

"That's not true," she insists, frustrated now. In her head, she was whirring through everything she'd seen, experienced -- _Uzumaki Naruto is layered_ , she wanted to say, _Wearing a mask that you can't see through!_

"No," he agrees, and she does a double-take, a shout rising in her throat at his attitude. "And you've seen a side of Uzumaki Naruto that I have never seen, nor will I ever see. Nevertheless, she is the village's weapon, disposable as we all are, and yet you seem to think they want her to be the Hokage."

"Sakura thinks she'll be the Uzukage," she whispers in a hushed tone, and the look her daddy throws at her turns her insides to ice.

"Sh, Ino," he says, and that was that.

She returns to planting flowers, pretty things that will one day grow up to be used in poisons, and wonders:

_What is so special about Naruto's mom?_

* * *

They buried Uzumaki Kushina with her organs. He licks his lips, a smile curling across his cheeks as the corpse, well-preserved and embalmed in the standard duty fluid, shows that Uzumaki Kushina has her ovaries, has her womb (as split open and as torn as it was, pierced open by something so unfathomably large her organs physically shifted around it).

He can even see that her incredible healing ability is frightening even in death, partially-healed flesh cauterised and ready to regrow. Her skin is sickly pale with the pallor of death, yet her hair remains full, vibrant --

_A perfect specimen_ , he thinks.

"Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto says, interrupting his assessment. The monitors show no sign of life, yet the blood sample shows a complex strand of DNA, a unique coding that, when compared with his other Uzumaki specimen, showed remarkable differences.

"Yes?" he purrs, combing a brush through the corpse's hair.

"Are you -- what are you going to do?" Kabuto asks, tone blank and yet his eyes baring all: he's curious, morbidly so, eager to unlock her genetic code just as much as he himself is.

"I'm not sure yet," he says, torn between reanimation and -- something more.

Something _more_.


	25. The Daughter of the Fourth Hokage

Naruto took a breath, gazing up at the cloud. Hyuuga Neji’s words washed over her, a mindless buzz against the roar of the crowd. Her hair was once again a deep, plummy red, hanging loose around her shoulders. The top half of her hair had been expertly braided by Uzumaki Kumi to pull away from her face, two thick plaits trailing down into the weft of hair that reached her lower back. Silver hoops were looped into the braids, imbued with a chakra unfamiliar to her. Some held tiny bells that chimed when she moved – but they didn’t chime exactly in time, causing some confusion in her enemies. _An intimidation tactic, huh_ , Naruto thought with a lazy smile. There was an entire section of the stands dedicated to the Uzumaki clan, an army of bad-assery there to witness _her_ bad-assery. She couldn’t see Jiraiya, but she could sense him close to Tsunade-sama and Jiji. She had a bad feeling about the cloaked Kazekage beside the Hokage, something awfully familiar about him that tugged at her senses. _Red hot rage – the popping of chains flirting out from her gut – the screaming of her two teammates… Or was that the roar in her ears?_

“I’m your enemy!”

Naruto shook herself out of her stupor, just about dancing away from Neji’s starting strike. Hinata gave her the advice that Neji would get frustrated by her ignoring him and making him frustrated would make him sloppy. From what she remembered of their fight… She wasn’t so sure it was true. However, her extensive training with Hinata had made her a lean machine to combat the Hyuuga style. “Ah, ah, ah,” Naruto said with a small smile. “That’s not very friendly, Neji-san.” Thing was, Naruto **had** fought one member of the Akatsuki with the help of her mentor. She had been trained by two Sannin. She was almost guaranteed a promotion solely because of this, never mind the slowly changing politics of the village with the addition of over three-hundred members of a new Shinobi clan. Konoha was a military dictatorship first and foremost, and this military dictatorship recognised power. She didn’t need to defeat Hyuuga Neji. She needed to show power.

And she had a lot of power. _The Honourable Daughter of the Fourth Hokage, and none of these people know it_ , she mused, dodging another attempt at closing her chakra points. The boy was getting more angry at her dismissal… His chakra was bubbling with his frustration. _Angry enemies are ones to watch_. And yet. A part of her also knew that being a chuunin meant getting the mission done with minimal casualties. They didn't yet have the skillset of jounin, nor the flashy jutsu, nor the reputation to back up their prowess. She had to end this fast and clean, using what she had at her disposal, and yet without losing the 'show' aspect of the Chuunin Exams. 

“You know nothing about being friendly,” Neji hissed through gritted teeth, halting in his attack. She wasn’t even focused on him. She deemed him _unworthy_ of her full attention. “You may have gained a clan, but that doesn’t make you any different to the dead last who failed your first test at the Academy! I bet they’re ashamed to have such a daydreamer as the Uzumaki clan heir!”

Naruto was sure the arena was silent. There were foreign dignitaries in the stands, more than she expected. There had been a whisper of the Uzumaki clan being revived, Jiraiya had said, but as all whispers did – this exploded into a frenzy of applications from other countries. Iwagakure had sent twenty of their best jounin to investigate, never mind the rest of their force. In Konohagakure, the Uzumaki had made waves. In the rest of the world… They were a whirlpool.

Pun intended.

“Do you think so?” she said with a smile, tilting her head. “I’m not sure you should be saying those things to the daughter of the Fourth Hokage.”

Neji’s expression faltered, his chakra sparking with uncertainty, and then Naruto struck.

His eyes didn’t even have chance to widen before Naruto was in front of him, a flash of orange, a fist within inches of his face. Using pure instinct he managed to dodge the hit, but didn’t expect the chakra charging through the punch, an extension of her punch – with a bark of pain he went flying backwards, arms raised for the next onslaught. He did not expect the kunoichi in front of him to let up, and she didn’t.

With a clap of sound that sounded like thunder, Naruto followed her failed punch up with an axe-like kick straight into Neji’s raised arms. Part of her wanted to use the manipulated nerves technique on him, making him dance like a spider to her tune, but she could not reveal all yet. Simply by showing extreme speed and strength she was showing her power, the resemblance to the Fourth Hokage and the yet-to-be-inducted Fifth Hokage uncanny. It would make her a target of every foreign shinobi in the stands, but she had discussed this at length with Hiroyuki-jii, and they were both sure this would fast-track her promotion post-chuunin. The sooner she was a jounin, the sooner she would become Clan Head. As a jinchuuriki, it was unlikely she would be allowed to leave the village _anyway_... So she'd get her own brats to train, probably Uzumaki, and live the life of the Clan Head.

 _Neji really didn’t stand a chance_ , Naruto mused. The ground underneath the boy held strong for a fraction of a second before splintering beneath him, swallowing him whole as the entire arena shook. Amazingly, the tree in the corner of the arena stood strong around the destroyed grounds that Naruto now stood on. _I don't think I want to be Clan Head. I want to be the Hokage._ Naruto turned her attention to the Hokage and the Kazekage, brow furrowed. _I wanted to be the most powerful ninja in the village... Where have I gone? Where has that urge gone?_ Did she want to be corseted to the Uzumaki clan? Did she want to be a jinchuuriki at all? Her attention moved to the rest of the genin waiting to fight. Sasuke and Sakura both looked amused, but the rest of the genin... Only Gaara looked pleased with her of the rest of them. _Want to be like them_ , she thought, focusing on Neji again. _Wanted to be a bad-ass Uzumaki... But not like this. Not like **this**. _

Neji didn’t move, his chakra flickering like a snuffed light from his position under the ground. Naruto had intended to destroy his arms, knowing that her mentor would be able to repair them… But she wanted him to feel as worthless as Hinata did when she fought him. That wasn't how she had been raised. But then - had she really been raised at all? Dragged up like vermin? Sarutobi-jii loved her, yes, but he was the Hokage. He couldn't stop it all. Teuchi-ojii lost business because of her. Tsunade loved her. Jiraiya loved her. But did either of them see... Naruto? Or did they see ghosts like Hiroyuki-jii?

“I think the match is done, proctor,” Naruto announced with a small frown as Neji’s chakra faded away into unconsciousness. _A bad-ass Uzumaki wanted to ruin his arms for being mean. That's not like me. That's Hiroyuki-jii._

 _But then... I'm not so sure I want to claim being the daughter of the Fourth Hokage. I am the daughter of Uzumaki Kushina, the princess of Whirlpool..._ Naruto's attention shifted to the proctor. _I am the daughter of the Red-Hot Habanero. I'm not **just** the daughter of the Fourth: and I am not my parents._

“Winner: Uzumaki Naruto,” the proctor said with a furrowed brow, sighing at the destruction of the grounds. Kids these days, with their flashy jutsu… _Mind, Tsunade-hime would be proud of that punch._

* * *

“She’s showboating,” Jiraiya said with a fond sigh, shaking his head. “She’s too focused on the crowd.”

“It’s not every day a clan is revived, especially not one like the Uzumaki,” the Kazekage said, eyes flitting over the crowd. Inside, Orochimaru was seething. This would damage his plans. However, the Mizukage _had_ offered his support… So perhaps this fight would become personal, especially as the Mizukage was on his way with reinforcements - it was a shame about not using the Six-Tails jinchuuriki, but he was sure the Three-Tails would be enough.

All they had to do was wait, and the Sanbi would do the rest.

“Konoha is now home to the remnants of Uzushio,” Sarutobi said with a small smile, stuffing more tobacco into his pipe. Naruto truly looked like her mother. There was Minato in her facial structure, but the rest of her was all Kushina. “We are proud to have them share our village and home.”

“As is their birthright,” Tsunade said with a grumble. “Kids these days just don’t stop talking, do they?”

“Ah, here we go!” Jiraiya said, expecting a fair fight. Naruto didn't fight dirty like her mother; Naruto fought like her father. Quick, focused on the job and unaffected by jabs. He liked to think he'd trained that into her--

 _Oh_ , Jiraiya thought, eyes widening. _Oh, she didn’t._ “Did she – “

“Yes,” Sarutobi said, eyes narrowing as he leaned in. “She did.”

“Atta’ girl!” Tsunade cheered, the flash following Naruto more of a tell of her heritage than anything else. “Bang!”

Jiraiya gazed around the crowds, expression pinched. People were whispering already, a furore amongst villagers, Konoha shinobi, and foreign shinobi alike. Hiroyuki was smirking in the stands. _He told her to do it,_ Jiraiya thought with mounting suspicion. _What does he have to gain from that_?

And then the feathers started to fall.

* * *

"No!" Uzumaki Kumi said, standing as Naruto revealed her parentage.

" _Y_ _esI"_ Fumiko laughed, slapping her hand against her leg. 

"I told her to," Hiroyuki said with a smile. "Soon she'll be Clan Head and I can truly retire in peace."

"My waters have gone," Kasumi said blankly, the wetness spreading underneath her. As the only pregnant Uzumaki at the moment, she had been pressed next to Hiroyuki. Fumiko was at her side, as was Kumi for protection. She had wanted to see Naruto fight, and she had! "Baby isn't due yet, Hiroyuki, she's far too early." _What do I do?_ Kasumi thought, trying not to panic. _I need to go to hospital. He's not ready._ Her baby looked big enough, certainly, and her belly was bigger than it had ever been with her other three - _but there's something wrong, something's not right, why are there feathers?_

With a loud cry, Kasumi leapt from her seat, the feathers dispelling immediately. "There's an attack," she cried out, hitting Fumiko in the back of her skull as her aunt started to slump into unconsciousness. "Wake up, idiot! My kids! My baby!"

Fumiko jerked herself awake, her eyes feeling abnormally heavy. "The hospital," she said, tongue heavy too. She stood on unsteady feet and began to yank Kasumi away. The shinobi and kunoichi in the crowd were waking to carnage, enemy shinobi creeping out during the illusion. Fumiko grabbed a kunai and held it tight, launching it at someone trying to block Kasumi from leaving. "GO!" she roared, beginning to fly through hand seals with her one good hand. Kasumi disappeared from her very eyes. _Invisibility Cloak - complete_ , she thought with a triumphant smile. Her best genjutsu, but also the most taxing. "Somebody needs to get to Naruto!" she said over the roar of blades flying. 

"I know!" Uzumaki Madoka cried back. "But she can handle herself! What about the kids?!"

Hiroyuki cursed softly. He had intended for a huge show of Uzumaki power, years of isolation making him sloppy. He had failed the youngest ones of them. The stands were packed with his best men and women - the children were at the compound, some even at the academy because he was a sucker for big puppy-dog eyes. "Go," he insisted. "Half of you, go!" His voice bellowed over the fighting. In the distance, he could see huge snake summons along with... Was that a Tailed Beast? He narrowed his eyes, sensing the demonic chakra against the barriers they had erected over Konoha - and there it was. The Three-Tailed Beast.

With a loud, echoing roar, the Three-Tailed Beast clawed at the adamantine chains overlapping Konoha, but they held strong. Another knock and Hiroyuki felt it in his bones, his core wobbling from the sheer strain of trying to hold the beast out. He was no God. He could not contain the might of the Three-Tailed Beast as well as three huge snake summons.

"I'm not strong enough," he mumbled to himself, trying to find his granddaughter. He couldn't find Kushina anywhere. Kushina could hold back the Nine-Tailed Beast: she could hold back the Three-Tailed Beast. He needed his granddaughter. "Kushina...?"


End file.
